Lucid
by KatanaNoNeko
Summary: Discontinued indefinitely
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Welp, guess I'm posting this now.**

 **I'm gonna be honest with you straight from the bat: This probably won't be updated very quickly, but we'll see. Togetherness readers can vouch for slow updates.**

 **I'm posting chapters 1 and 2 right away because the preview of chapter 1 has been up for ages.**

 **This has been a long journey and it's not near done yet, but I hope you enjoy and will stick around :)**

* * *

"That is all. You may return to your bedchamber, Lucy."

"Yes, Father." The seventeen-year-old woman bowed out of the room. She put on a stoic face as she headed towards her room, nodding to servants as she passed in recognition of their bows. She tried to walk as she was expected to, lightly and lady-like, but all the servants who saw her couldn't help but notice that her steps were heavier than normal, her strides were hurried, and her nods were curt. They could tell that she hated whatever her father had said.

Lucy was finally to her quarters. She opened one of the huge double-doors and tried very hard not to slam it. "Virgo?" she called. "Please fetch for me my nightgown. I think I shall be retiring for the night." It was only seven, but Lucy was emotionally exhausted from trying to hide the anger she held for her father. Lucy lounged on a velvet loveseat within the first of her rooms and closed her eyes as she massaged her temples.

"Yes, Princess," the pink haired maid said as she appeared with her mistress' favorite raspberry-green tea to cheer her up. Virgo had not been immune to figuring out Lucy's anger. The girl was always angry after visits with her father. Lucy thanked her maid, took a drink of the fruity delicacy, then sighed.

"I am not a princess. I'm only a duchess, and I don't even want to be that." Virgo often called Lucy by the nickname and while it was odd, it normally didn't bug the blonde all too much. But right now, Lucy wanted nothing to do with it.

"The Heartfilias are next in line for the throne after the Dreyars, so you're almost a princess," Virgo pointed out. Lucy shot her a glare. Giving Lucy her nightgown, Virgo sat down beside her. "What happened this time?" The girl asked bluntly. Lucy shook her head, not knowing where to start. "Would you like to take your anger out on me with punishment?" This time Lucy shook her head at the maid's ridiculous suggestion. "You received letters from both Lady Scarlet and Princess Dreyar," she commented, holding the mail. Lucy gestured to the vanity. She'd read her friend's messages later. "Shall I retrieve Lady Levy, Princess?" Lucy took another sip of her tea as she nodded. Virgo nodded back, then stood from the loveseat and bowed herself out to retrieve Lucy's close lady-in-waiting and friend.

As she waited, Lucy strode to her bathroom, changed into her night clothes, and brushed her medium-length, golden hair out of its ornate style so that it was straight. "Ow!" Lucy yelped. She frowned, then pulled the hidden pin out of her hair so that it wouldn't yank again. By the time she was setting her brush down on her exquisite vanity, her maid and lady-in-waiting had both arrived back. As usual, the bluenette that was Levy had a pile of books in her arms. _She must've been in the library before Virgo fetched her,_ Lucy thought.

"What'd he say this time, Lu?" the blue-haired friend asked, getting right to the point.

Lucy sent Virgo away, then sighed. "The heir of the Prominence family will be arriving tomorrow, and I'm 'expected to show that I'll be a good wife', so that the 'Heartfilias can continue to prosper with the wealth your possible marriage will give'! I haven't even met Lord Prominence, and he already expects us to get married! Fiore and Kasai have moved away from that custom, but he just has to stick with it! All these stupid suitors I've seen are from Bosco and beyond, because no one from our own alliance follows the 'arranged marriage' and 'marriage interview' ridiculousness! I mean, shouldn't that fact tell him something!?"

"Wasn't Prominence supposed to marry the lady of the Titanose household of Bosco?" Levy started. This was not really the time, but her curiosity could not be willed away.

Lucy understood her friends love for learning, so she didn't worry about not getting advice yet. "It was called off. I'm not sure why, I just heard something about 'bad behavior'."

"Oh. Alright," although Lucy could see that Levy was not quite sated and would certainly be delving through documents for more information. Luckily, the advice came next as Levy sighed and shook her head. "I've told you: if you hate it here, then you should run away! I'll even come with you so you won't be alone! It would be just like this book I re-"

"That's just it, Lev! I'm not in a book! I wouldn't know the first thing about living outside of the manor, even if you are there! I have no skills! For all my years, I've had everything I need and have barely been allowed to do anything for myself, so what would I do when I couldn't get things at the snap of a finger!?" Levy grew quiet. She just didn't know what to say or what advice to give. "And besides," Lucy started again, her voice returning to the steady tone that told Levy her next sentence would be one that Lucy practically rehearsed to herself to justify staying. Levy noticed that it did sound a tad regretful, though. "I need to be ready to run the kingdom should something dreadful become of Prince and Princess Dreyar." Lucy sighed.

"You know as much as I do that it's very unlikely for Mira and Laxus to be rendered unable to rule anytime soon. And stop talking so formally. I know you hate it."

Lucy just sighed in response. She had dropped some of the formalities after leaving her father's study, but she was still a tad stuck in it, apparently. She also knew Levy's first words were true. Both members of the couple were formidable fighters, the Princess Mirajane possibly moreso than her husband. For a while, Mirajane had stopped fighting and refused to look at her weapons, but that had changed again as of late, luckily. If anyone were to attack them, it wouldn't turn out great for the one doing the attacking. They'd probably be announcing an heir to the throne sometime soon, as well. "I think I'm just going to go to sleep. Thank you for talking with me. Good night." Lucy stood up from the loveseat and went into her main bedchamber, closing the door behind her. Levy sighed. Perhaps she could find more books for her friend. _Those always help her escape, if only for a short while_. With that thought, she left, hoping that she could cheer her blonde friend up somehow.

Lucy slumped onto the foot of her bed. Sighing deeply, she climbed under her thick, woolen covers. She rested her head on the fluffy feather pillows billowing at the head of her bed and pulled the covers up to her neck, curling up into a ball under them. Trying not to think of her father, Lucy closed her eyes and drifted into dreamland, hoping for some adventure there.

 **oOo**

The woman found herself in the clearing of a forest. Or, what she imagined a forest to be like. Oak trees surrounded her and a plethora and variety of plants spread across the ground. Vines crawled up the trunks of the trees, releasing a mystical feeling into the clearing. Being a noble, she hadn't spent much time traipsing in the wilderness, so it all had to be arranged from descriptions in stories. Lucy loved to read. Epic fairy tales were her favorites. The adventures in them were exciting, and she so desperately wanted to go on such epic quests. Just as she had told Levy earlier, though, she had no clue how to. One of her favorite stories, as well as her mother's, had had fairies in it. As a child, she had often dreamed of going to forests and searching for fairies. Her mother had promised they would do just that sometime. Unfortunately, such a trip had never happened, and never could. Her mother had died when she had only been a little girl.

Lucy saddened a bit at the memory of her mother and the trip that could never happen. With the death of her mother, she'd been left without a proper parent figure. Her father hadn't been a parent to her ever, so perhaps the closest she'd had after her mother had been her butler, Capricorn. Capricorn had been very close to Lucy's mother and had thus always been there for Lucy, too. Lucy smiled at the memories of Capricorn before she heard a long groan and a loud crack behind her, followed closely by a crash. Turning around, Lucy saw that a tree trunk at least four times her width had fallen through the edge of the clearing to create a wall across it.

"Cool! I just knocked a tree over!" A voice called. Lucy watched the owner of the voice, a boy that seemed to be her age, jump onto the trunk and pump his fist in the air proudly. At the sight of him, she immediately felt a strange relief and smiled softly, but also felt a pounding feeling in the back of her head and a sort of fluttering in her heart. She ignored the sudden headache and strange feelings in favor of studying the man, though. He had bright, spiky, pink hair covering his head, and eyes that shined with excitement, but when Lucy's eyes were drawn to the cheery grin on his face that seemed to exude excitement and happiness, Lucy noticed that her own mouth widened to mirror it. His grin was too contagious to not react in such a way, and she had the strangest feeling that she'd seen that grin before. She was certain she would've remembered this strange-seeming boy, though, had they met before.

Suddenly, the log lurched, causing the newcomer to slip and fall off, landing on his back with a dull thud and a groaned out 'ow'. Lucy was concerned for a bit, about to race over to him and see if he was okay, but then he darted up off the ground and started waving his fist at the log.

"You want a piece of me!?" he yelled. "I'll teach you to make me fal-" He was interrupted by a fit of giggles and turned around to see a blonde girl, holding her sides and bent over at the waist with laughter. The boy felt the same relief and pulsing in the back of his head as the girl had, not that either knew of the shared feeling. He hardly noticed it, though, used to having headaches from falling, fighting, and simply being whacked in the head for being stupid. The boy couldn't help but smile. The jovial and bell-like sound of her giggling was too contagious for him to avoid laughing along with her, and it even sounded a bit familiar to him. Why was that?

The two's laughing slowly rolled to a stop. Once it did, Lucy let out a shaky breath and wiped at her eyes. She winced a little at the pain in her sides, not used to laughing so much. Her father thought that laughter was such an obnoxious sound, so the most she could ever do was giggle lightly when with a friend. "I'm sorry for laughing," she apologized with another shaky breath, "You just took me by surprise, and then the tree-" Lucy giggled again, causing her partner to also snicker once more.

"It's fine! It was pretty funny. I'm Natsu! Who're you?" The pink-haired boy, Natsu, asked. Lucy blushed a little at his forwardness, but Natsu had a certain air around him that made her feel comfortable, as if she were speaking to her best friend. She felt she could trust him. She felt like she was home again after a long time gone around him.

"Hello? Are you gonna talk anytime soon, Weirdo?" Natsu snapped his fingers in front of Lucy's face. Lucy jumped with a start as she realized that she had been staring into space and completely silent while she thought. Her cheeks puffed put in annoyance when she realized what he had called her, and Natsu decided that seeing that was almost as great as hearing her laugh, and just as oddly familiar.

"Weirdo!? Maybe I won't tell you my name!" Lucy suggested, with both an angry tone and a joking tone in the words.

"Well, I have to call you something! If you won't tell me your name, then I'll have to stick with 'Weirdo'!" Natsu grinned as he teased her, causing Lucy to not only roll her eyes, but also blush again.

"Lucy!" She suddenly said.

"Huh?"

"My name! It's Lucy!"

Natsu stared at her for a bit with a blank look, then smiled to her once again. "Okay, Loony!"

Lucy's eyes bugged out. "Excuse me!? I'm over here, deciding that I can trust you enough to reveal my name, and you have the audacity to make fun of it!?"

Natsu, instead of being apologetic, as Lucy expected, just looked confused. "Odd Ass City? Where's that?"

"What!? No! Audac-" Lucy shook her head, not wanting to bother explaining, and decided to just yell, "You're an idiot!"

Lucy had expected him to get defensive, but the strange boy just chuckled and gave her his bright grin again. "I've been called that before!"

Lucy scoffed. "That's to be expected! You are one!"

"You seem nice," Natsu said. "I like you." To Lucy's surprise, there wasn't a hint of sarcasm in his voice. It had been a genuine comment. Lucy's cheeks became tinged with pink again.

"Well, I like you, too. You seem nice as well." Lucy could see him smile at the comment, and she couldn't help but smile back.

Very suddenly, Natsu felt the sensation of cold water washing over his face, and he disappeared from the forest and from Lucy's dream, putting an abrupt end to their conversation. "Natsu?" Lucy called. "Where'd you go?" She turned and checked all around her for the pink-haired man and came to the conclusion that she was alone in her forest of dreams. Then, the scenery around her began to fade, and she found herself in her bedroom, awake and in the dark.

"Natsu?" she quietly questioned the empty room. Lucy shrugged and decided to lay back down and go back to sleep, but she still had lingering thoughts of Natsu left on her mind. _Is he real? And if he is, then who is he?_

The rest of her night went dreamless.

 **oOo**

Natsu jerked up out of his dream to wake up in a courtyard. Lush, green grass was speckled with brown patches of dirt. _Who was she?_ Lucy had been her name, he could remember. She had yelled it at him pretty clearly. _She was weird._ At that thought, he smiled. He heard a snicker beside him and looked up to see a man with dark hair above him, holding an empty bucket.

"What's with the smile?" the man asked with a smirk.

Natsu scoffed and sent the image of Lucy away. "Nothing," he claimed, making the asker wonder what had happened. Natsu scratched the back of his head and felt that his hair was cold and wet. _Tch. So he did dump water on me,_ he thought, remembering the bucket. "Why'd you wake me up, Gray? And when'd I fall asleep?"

Gray, the man with the dark hair, became straight-faced. "The king would like to see you in his study. He has too much paperwork to do, or he would've gotten your ass himself." Then he smirked again. "And to answer your second question, about five minutes into our duel when I knocked you out." Natsu hated the cocky look on the speaker's face, so he punched him just there. "Hey!"

Natsu ignored the indignant call of his rival and stood up. Looking around, the eighteen-year-old spotted his sword a little farther away and picked it up, putting it into the sheath attached to his belt. He loved his sword. It was a broadsword, although he didn't use the advantage of a one-handed sword to carry a shield; a shield would just weigh him down. If he was fast enough to dodge, then there was no need for a shield, which was part of why he chose a broadsword. It was lighter than some of the other options. Another reason he loved the sword so much was the hilt's design. The hilt was fashioned as a dragon, with the wings acting as a guard and the dragon's open mouth leading to the blade. He didn't know what the blade was made of, but he liked it. The metal was a slightly reddish color and was very shiny, giving it the awesome illusion of fire when it glinted in light. All those features caused him to dub the sword "Fire Dragon".

Gray, nineteen, often made fun of Natsu's sword, but Natsu personally thought his was much cooler than Gray's. Gray's sword was a claymore, which he had called "Icecalibur". Besides being inspired by some legend that Natsu never cared to remember, the name had partially come from the light blue gems that sparkled along the guard, almost giving it the appearance of ice. The blade was of another bright, shiny metal that Natsu didn't know the name of, but it didn't have the reddish tinge of the Fire Dragon's blade. It was just a plain silver colored metal.

Gray also had a strange, black magic within him, but whether it was a curse or not, no one really knew. If he was ever in an extremely tough battle, he could use the magic to bring forth extra strength and make him generally tougher, but it caused one side of him to become nearly covered in a strange black marking. They had to assume it was a curse, as no sort of magical blessing would look like that, but it hadn't given him any repercussions through use yet. They didn't know anything about it or why he had it, and Gray was cautious in using it. He wouldn't use it when just sparring, and only use when training to make sure he could keep a check on the power. The need hadn't called for it yet, but he only wanted to use the strange magic when he was losing a battle that mattered.

Natsu gave his friend another punch before heading into the castle from the courtyard. He would have to fight Gray again later, but make sure to knock him out in the first five minutes. After walking through some long, red-carpeted hallways and climbing up some tall, winding stairs, Natsu had arrived to his destination. He opened one of the heavy wooden doors and went in. At the large, regal, wooden desk covered in paperwork sat a red-haired man: King Igneel Dragneel of Kasai. Natsu cleared his throat and called to him.

"Hey, you wanted me, Dad?"

* * *

 **A/N: Remember, chapter 2 is also going to be up shortly.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Whoop here's chapter two for the first time!**

* * *

Natsu opened one of the heavy wooden doors of the king's study and called to the red-haired man sitting at the large, regal desk.

"Hey, you wanted me, Dad?"

The red-haired man, Igneel, king of Kasai, looked up to the door, where the voice of his son rang out. He smiled to the boy.

"Yes, yes. I wanted to talk to you about..." Igneel sighed, knowing Natsu wouldn't particularly like this topic. "marriage."

Just as Igneel had predicted, Natsu let out a long groan and slumped into one of the large, cushioned chairs by his father's desk. "Come on, Dad! I told you, I don't care to get married!"

Igneel laughed knowingly. He himself had been the same reckless, careless youth before he had met Grandine. He had fallen in love with the woman, and suddenly, marriage hadn't seemed like such a stupid notion. He suspected his son would be the same way. Once Natsu found the right girl, he would fall for her and would love her from the bottom of his heart. "Just checking where you were on that."

Natsu groaned again. "Yeah, Dad, okay." Igneel chuckled at his son. They really were very similar.

Then Igneel recalled something. "Oh, yes, and the painter-"

"NO."

"You didn't let me-"

"NO. I am not getting my portrait done!"

"I told him you probably wouldn't want to," Igneel chuckled again. "But he insisted I ask. Why are you so adamant about it?"

"Because as soon as my portrait is done and gets sent around the kingdom, everyone will know what I look like and I won't be able to leave the castle without the people constantly keeping an eye on me! I'll be bombarded with people all the time! I wanna be the Salamander out in the country because no one has to worry about Salamander! But everyone worries about the prince and it'd be fucking annoying!"

Igneel chuckled again at the similarities between he and his son. He could remember saying almost the exact same words to his own father. "Alright, fine."

"And besides, who even wants to just sit and do nothing for however many hours it takes to get a painting done!"

"Yes, I get your point. No portraits yet."

"Can I go kick Gray's ass now?"

"Yeah, go ahead. I have some work to do, anyways. Just don't stay up too late."

 **oOo**

"Princess," Virgo said as she shook Lucy's shoulder. Next to her stood Aries, the family's seamstress. Lucy groaned and lifted her blankets up over her head as she turned away from her maid. "Princess, your father requested that you be gotten up and ready, as Lord Prominence will be arriving at any time."

Lucy groaned again. "Yeah, that'll get me up," she grumbled, but she climbed out of her big, comfy bed all the same. She already missed the warmth of her covers. It was so nippy in the mornings in Fiore. She had heard that Kasai, the kingdom neighboring Fiore, was always warm. Maybe if she ever could run away, she would head there.

"Here are the garments your father requested." Virgo gestured to the other pinkette in the room as she held up a dress to Lucy.

"I'm sorry if you don't like it, Lucy! This is what Duke Heartfilia requested!" Aries apologized. Lucy grimaced. The dress was far too busy, with a hoop skirt and corset as well as being a bright pink color with equally gaudy purple ribbons and a pale pink lace lining most edges. She hated fancy dresses like that. They were extremely uncomfortable. That was another great thing she had heard about Kasai: they wore much simpler clothes, and corsets were rarely worn, even by nobles! Lucy didn't argue about the dress, though. It would just create unnecessary trouble, and she didn't want to hurt Aries' feelings. The girl was merely following Lucy's father's directions, and very well, she might add. The quality of the dress was quite high, as uncomfortable and stuffy it may have seemed.

After struggling her way into the cloth and finding that it was even more uncomfortable than it seemed, Lucy was then handed over to Cancer, her hairdresser. A funny thing, Lucy had realized a while ago, was that most of her servants were, or were descended from, citizens of Celestia. Celestia had been a country to the north, but it had been taken over by another country, Baram, causing many citizens to flee. It had happened about nineteen years ago, two or so years before she was born, and the whole thing had been very mysterious. The only people involved were from either Baram or Celestia, and supposedly, most of the Celestials directly involved were killed. The same went for another country, Koori, that had been even more to the north than Celestia. It had also mysteriously been taken by Baram, only a month after Celestia's disappearance. Fiore and Kasai probably would have also been swallowed up by Baram's forces if Kings Dreyar and Dragneel had not joined their efforts and confronted the enemy together in a surprise invasion. They had not defeated Baram, but it had definitely been subdued. And just subduing the powerful enemy had taken a lot. Most of the frontlinemen had been killed.

Bosco, the country her father was so fond of making her see dukes and lords from, was part of Sinclair, another continent to the South. They were connected to Fiore through trade, and Fiore's port town of Hargeon was often full of Boscinians, but Bosco and the other countries beyond had nothing to do with the Baram wars and refused to get involved. Fiore and Kasai had asked for help years ago, but had gained nothing in return, the continent of Sinclair not realizing that Baram would eventually come for them anyways. Luckily, Fiore and Kasai had somewhat managed without backing forces.

Nowadays, Fairy Tail was said to be the main force that would give Baram a run for their money, should they ever attack. Fairy Tail was a classification given to different knights from Fiore and Kasai. Others included Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus. The classifications didn't really mean anything unless the time came for another war, when the names would be used for defining which divisions would be sent where. At this point, it merely brought spirit and friendly rivalry. Fairy Tail was a public favorite, including well-known names like Titania Erza Scarlet and the crown princes of both Fiore and Kasai.

Lucy's curiosity about the Celestia and Koori disappearances was at a peak, but there was no way for her to find out. Neither Virgo nor Aries had been alive at the time of the event, so they had no memories of it, fleeing or otherwise. Cancer had been five, but still too young to remember much. All he remembered was that one day, he and his family had left their home and never went back. Similar cases went for pretty much all of Lucy's Celestial acquaintances. Lucy was sure the only one of her servants who might have had a vivid memory of the event was her butler, Capricorn, but she had never asked about it. She was curious, but she didn't want to bring up bad memories. Capricorn had been here since before she was born, a faithful servant to her mother and was a loving father to another servant and friend of hers, Yukino. Yukino was not much older than Lucy, only a year and half, so they had played together quite frequently. The girl had also been doted upon greatly by Lucy's mother, spoiling and loving her just as much as she spoiled and loved on Lucy, but Lucy had never been jealous. She'd been happy to have a sister. When her mother had died, though, the two had grown distant, their different methods of grieving taking them apart, and then when she was old enough, Yukino had started work as a maid for Lucy's father, and he kept her busy as well as Lucy. Lucy tried to catch up with her friend every once in a while, but it was harder than being friends with Levy, as Levy was her own servant instead of her father's.

"Hello, Baby," Cancer greeted in his gruff voice. Lucy rolled her eyes at the nickname, but greeted him back. She sat down in a chair and let Cancer do his work. Very soon, he was done, and Lucy's hair was up in an intricate bun, with a couple more bright purple ribbons adorning her.

"Thank you, Cancer," Lucy said with only a tiny amount of true gratitude. She returned to her main bedchamber, hoping to perhaps have a few minutes to read. It was then that someone knocked on the door.

"Lady Lucy?" It was one of her father's maids. "Lord Prominence has arrived. Lord Jude is upset that you are late."

"Yes, I'm sorry," although she wasn't very apologetic at all. Lucy sighed. She couldn't stall this any longer. It was time to start the day of 'impressing her suitor'. "I will be out within a few minutes."

"Yes, Miss." Lucy could hear the light footsteps of the young woman retreating. She sighed again, then put her book down before even having read a word. She picked up her skirt and went to her door, opening it. She turned left, knowing that her father and Lord Prominence would be in the entrance hall, chatting stuff up. Very soon, her suspicions were confirmed as the sound of incoherent talking and boisterous, but fake, laughter floated up the stairs and to Lucy. _Prominence has the same tone as Father. The douchebag tone._ Lucy chuckled to herself. She would never say something like that aloud, but in her head, she would say it as much as she liked.

At the top of the stairs that led into the entrance hall, Lucy gracefully and quietly walked down each step. Jude sensed her presence and glanced up at her. "Lucy, you are late," he sternly pointed out.

"I'm sorry, Father, Lord Prominence. I did not mean to keep your graces waiting. I shall endeavor to be on time from now on." Lucy stepped off the stairs and curtsied to her father and the guest. Lord Prominence was wearing dark blue robes that draped over his tall, lithe form. His hairstyle consisted of dark blue spikes slicked off to the side. The cocky smirk on his face paired with his appearance gave off the same 'douchebag' vibe as his voice had.

"No harm done! And none of these formalities! You may call me Bora and I shall call you by your name! Lucy, wasn't it?" Lucy looked to the speaker, whose name was apparently Bora Prominence. Unlike with Natsu from her dream, when this man told her his name, it absolutely repulsed her. Perhaps it had something to do with the way that he looked at her like she was a feast. As his eyes casted over her, Lucy could tell that they had lingered for much longer than needed at her breasts, and again at her hips. _Did he just lick his lips!? This man is a worm!_

"I have some business to attend to now, so I will be leaving you," Lucy's father remarked. Lucy stood stock still as Bora moved beside her, a little close for comfort. He placed a hand on the small of her back, and though Lucy couldn't see the future, she could certainly predict one where his hand moved lower. She had to resist the urge to slap him, knowing her father certainly wouldn't leave that go unpunished.

"Do not worry, Jude. I shall take care of Lucy for you." Lucy shuddered at the words 'take care.'

"Lucy!" Lucy turned to the voice. It was coming from the same set of stairs that she had just come down. At the top of the stairs was a bluenette woman. It was Levy! "Luc- er-" Levy was at the bottom of the stairs now, and curtsied to Jude and Bora. "Pardon my interference, but I would like to ask permission to stay with Lady Lucy as she... Gets to know Lord Prominence."

Jude looked stunned. Bora cast his eyes over her, and, seeing no voluptuous figure, became annoyed at the second woman.

"There's no need-" Bora started.

"Decide amongst yourselves. Show him around the manor, Lucy," Jude said before leaving for his study. "And we will meet up for lunch."

Bora glared at the bluenette who had interfered with his desires. "There's really no need for you to come along. I think Lucy can show me around by herself."

"I would like Lady Levy to accompany us. If she is with us, I shall feel much more comfortable." Lucy spoke sternly, making sure to portray that it was not optional; Levy would be coming.

Bora scoffed. "Tch. Women. Just show me around your manor. And do try to run into some maids along the way." The last comment had been made under his breath. Lucy and Levy both grumbled to themselves. He really was a pig.

The rest of the day had been somewhat uneventful. Only a half hour in, Bora had disappeared, with some suspicious high-pitched giggling coming from the direction he had disappeared to. Levy and Lucy had rolled their eyes and decided to leave him there and went to the library to read and talk about books.

When it was time to meet for lunch, they had run into Bora in the hallway, looking tussed up, but happy. Apparently he had quite a good time with a couple of the servant women. Levy and Lucy were both happy, as well: happy that the man had left them alone all morning. Unfortunately, after seeing that everyone was in a good mood, Jude had invited Bora to spend the night and leave in the morning, rather than that afternoon, as the original plan was. Lucy groaned at the thought of the wooing Bora might force upon her as he tried to convince her that he wasn't as much of a pig as he really was. Jude had finished his work for the day, so, unfortunately for Lucy again, her father was forcing her to remain with 'the family' until he decided that they should all retire for bed. Lucy had ended up having to endure Bora's presence for that day until nearly midnight, which had been when Bora had finally passed out from all the alcohol he was drinking. That was when Jude had finally allowed Lucy to leave and go to her room.

Lucy let out a groan she'd been holding in since lunch as she entered her room.

"You said it," Levy joked as she gave a good night to her friend. "I would stay longer and talk, Lu, but," she yawned, "I'm just too tired..."

Lucy yawned as well. "I, as well." She called a good night to her friend, then closed the door, retreating into her bedchamber. Collapsing on her bed, Lucy noticed a nightgown laid out next to her, probably courtesy of Virgo. She changed into it, putting her dress of the day into her dirty clothes closet. She then brushed out her hair, and she was ready to climb under her warm blankets and drift into dreamland.

 **oOo**

She found herself walking along a cobbled road in what seemed to be a port town. _I'm not at home; this has to be a dream._ Around her shoulder was a big bag, and she was wearing much simpler clothes than normal. _So it's another runaway dream,_ Lucy thought.

Behind her, she heard high-pitched, excited squealing. She turned and saw a huge crowd of women. Deciding to investigate, Lucy strolled over. Once she was closer, she heard what some of the squealers were yelling.

"Salamander!"

"Call me Bora, beautiful ladies!"

Very high-pitched squealing resounded. "BORA!"

Lucy groaned. "Why does he have to invade my dreams, too!?" She wondered where she had heard the name "Salamander." It seemed familiar, but she couldn't place it. At the moment, however, she didn't want to think about it. Deciding to ignore the disgusting man, Lucy continued walking until she found herself at the docks of this dreamland city. Her senses were overwhelmed. Tons of people were strolling, wandering, and hurrying through the district. Massive ships could be seen lining the rough, cobblestone road she could feel underneath her every step. Various cries of 'Mommy, I wanna have that!', 'Just set the crates down over there', 'Fresh fish!', 'Let's head off tomorrow!' and the like rang out through the scene. Seagulls cawed in the air above while waves crashed in mountains of ocean spray against the side of the city cutoff. The area smelt of the salty sea that bordered the road she walked upon, with an odor of both live and dead fish also permeating through the air. Lucy smiled, enjoying the busy, chaotic nature of the port as opposed to the manor's quietness. She continued to walk along the bustling path as she took in her dreamed up surroundings.

Then, Lucy's ears picked up a few voices that held some worrisome words.

"Have we filled our quota on women yet? We have to get them to Bosco by next week."

"Not quite. Boss is out right now looking for more."

Lucy gasped, and looked for the source of the voices. Her eyes found two men standing at the edge of the road near a dock, as if they were guarding it. One man was bald, eye-patched, and fat, while the other was tall and had dark, spiked-up hair along with a scar running across his nose. Next to the dock was a medium-sized ship: large enough for a good-sized cargo, but small enough to remain somewhat inconspicuous. Lucy had to infer that that's what they were guarding. They had mentioned women, and leaving, and getting more. It was stupid of them to be talking out in the open, because Lucy was able to assume that this was some sort of kidnapping operation. Lucy sighed. This was a dream. These two men were figments of her imagination, as was this port, this ship, and any of the women that had been mentioned. But... She had to do something. This just didn't sit well with her. Lucy set her burdening bag down and sneakily moved closer.

 **oOo**

In a castle in the capital city of Kasai, a pink-haired prince was falling asleep for the night.

Natsu walked along a cobblestone road. His sense of smell told him that he was by the ocean. The sights around him seemed familiar, and then it hit him. _Hargeon?_ He thought. _I was just here last week! Why am I here again?_

Then, his ears picked up a snippet of a conversation, and his internal wondering was ceased.

"You know what they're saying? They say that there's a ship at the docks with a dragon on it!"

"A dragon! Scary! Let's stay away from the port, then!"

Natsu was instantly running through the semi-familiar streets towards the edge of the city, a grin on his face. Dragons were frickin' awesome! There was no way he would miss the chance to see one!

 **oOo**

"How are we keeping the authorities off the ship?" Lucy heard the bald man say in his awkward, cracking voice.

"Convinced 'em we were holding a dangerous, volatile dragon aboard. They're steering clear. Someone would have to be crazy to try and get into a dragon's ship."

Lucy scoffed at the incompetence of the authorities in this dreamed-up town. They should have checked the ship despite that! And who would be transporting a dragon anyways? Weren't they mythical? Although, she had heard that many people were stout believers in the existence of the winged beasts and spent good chunks of their lives searching for them. Lucy thought that the idea of a dragon was interesting and cool, but it seemed ridiculous that they could actually exist. They were the stuff of fairy tales, and fairy tales didn't come true.

Shaking her head, Lucy stopped thinking about dragons and went back to the problem at hand. She needed to find a way onto the ship. Lucy continued watching the two men standing guard, hoping that something would cause them to leave. Unfortunately, in the short time she spared to hope for it, no such thing happened. Lucy grumbled, but after watching them for a little while longer, she decided that she could probably sneak past. _But then what?_ What could she, a female with no weapons and a lack of both fighting knowledge and experience, do to save anyone? Lucy glanced around. Perhaps there was something lying around that she could use.

 _That could work._ In front of her and to the right about ten feet off, a metal rod laid haphazardly. It was a little close for comfort to the guards and the ship, close enough that anyone who saw her grabbing it would be able to figure out what she was going to do with it. Lucy sighed and glanced over to the guards once more before creeping carefully towards the item. Just before she could grab it, though, she felt a hand catch her wrist.

Lucy's heartbeat quickened even more than it already had been. It was a hand she had felt before, very recently.

* * *

 **A/N: I really hope you guys enjoy it! Thank you for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Well, might as well post this.**

* * *

Lucy shuddered as a, sadly, familiar voice snaked its way into her ear.

"Now what's a beautiful young lady going to do with something like that?" As the man's hands moved from her wrists and up onto her shoulders, Lucy could feel him leaning in to kiss her neck. She shuddered again and whipped around, ripping her shoulders from his grasp.

"Bora," she hissed out, staring adamantly into the arrogant man's stunned face. His stunned look disappeared after a few seconds, a slimy smirk taking its place.

"In the flesh. I saw you from the crowd earlier, and I just wanted to... personally invite you to a party that I'm holding on my ship tonight." His hand reached for her, aiming to cup her cheek. Lucy slapped the hand away as she put two and two together.

"I know what's happening on your ship. I'll be coming, but certainly not for a party. I won't allow you to leave with those women!"

Bora sighed. "How unfortunate. You're going to make this hard." He flicked his hand to motion something and before Lucy could react, two strong hands grabbed her by the arms. "If you had come quietly, then this wouldn't have hurt." Lucy tried to shriek as her arms were held tightly and she was lifted slightly off the ground, but her mouth and nose were immediately covered by another sweaty, meaty hand. Lucy gagged at the smell. "You'll fetch quite a high price, if I don't decide to keep you to myself. Knock her out, boys," and Lucy felt a hard thump on her head before everything went black.

 **oOo**

Lucy could feel herself flickering in and out of consciousness, only vaguely hearing bits of sound before they were completely forgotten. She organized her thoughts carefully. _I was... Dreaming... And then... Bora appeared... Oh right, there was a kidnapping ring, and Bora's a part of it. He had his men knock me out. How does that even work in dreams? Am I back in my bed?_ Lucy let her senses gather information. Her eyes didn't want to open, providing no visual, but against the side of her body, she could feel something hard that certainly not her warm, comfortable bed and goose-down quilts. She could hear worried whimpers and whispers around her. Around her wrists and holding them together behind her back, Lucy could feel rope tied tightly, digging into her skin. _Alright, so I'm definitely still in my dream._ Lucy worked to open her eyes, and finally, they did, only for her to discover that she was blindfolded. Lucy struggled until she could finally move into a sitting position. Once she was, she felt the cloth tied around her eyes fall partially over her mouth. _Idiots,_ she thought. _They used such a big cloth that it's covering way more than necessary._ Using her teeth, Lucy bit down on the infuriating cloth and started to pull down. It was stubborn for a few seconds, but then not only did Lucy take it off her eyes, she also loosened the knot completely free with her tugging. As the cloth fell into her lap, Lucy couldn't help but scoff again at the idiocy of her captors, although being in her subconscious probably helped the conveiniency.

Looking around, Lucy could see that all the girls around her also had large cloths tied around their eyes and hanging in their faces, but none of them had thought to remove them. Lucy found herself annoyed at idiocy again. Shaking her head to clear it, Lucy tried to come up with a plan. She would have to get out of this room, which appeared to be the hold, if she was going to do anything to help these girls. Lucy wriggled her wrists, hoping that the rope around them turned out to be as laxly tied as the blinder.

Unfortunately for her, her wrists really had been tied by someone competent. The knot stubbornly refused to loosen. Lucy sighed. She would have to find a way to cut them. Just as that thought passed through her head, Lucy noticed a sword leaning against the wall nearby. The hilt was in the shape of a dragon, just as Lucy had heard that a certain knight from Kasai's was. Everyone called the man "Salamander", from the name of his sword, the so-called "Fire Dragon". According to legends, he achieved both the apprehending of villains as well as massive levels of accidental property damage. Because of the fame surrounding this hero and his sword, there were tons of imposters who carried fake versions of the Fire Dragon and demanded goods from the public as rewards for "their" good deeds. _Someone on this ship, probably Bora, must be one of those imposters_ , Lucy thought without surprise, recalling the crowd of girls from earlier.

To make her way to the sword, Lucy would have to either stand, or scoot over on her butt or knees. Trying to stand sounded the most appealing. Lucy moved her feet out in front of her, bent her knees, and put her feet on the back of her heels. She adjusted her hands so that the sides of them were against the grimy floor, then pushed with the appendages against the wood. Using the force and momentum to her advantage, Lucy got herself into a squatting position. Then, she pushed down with her feet to stand up. Her body rocked a bit without the aid of her hands to balance with, but luckily, she didn't fall. Lucy let out a sigh of relief, then looked to her target.

The sword was about five feet away, a short, and easy, walk. Standing beside it, Lucy realized that if she was going to use it to cut the rope from her wrists, she would have to do it without the help of her eyes. Turning around, Lucy slowly kneeled down. It took a few tries, but finally, Lucy managed to get the sword's tip caught in the ropes, the feel of the metal chilled against her hands. She sighed in relief again, made sure that the sword was securely in between her hands and the rope, and quickly swiped her wrists downwards. The plan worked as she hoped. As the rope passed against the edge of the widening blade, it was cut through, and Lucy hit the ground with a gasp.

"Yes!" She shouted in excitement. Then, she slapped a hand over her mouth, realizing that shouting could alert Bora or someone else what she was doing. With her ears listening closely, Lucy tried to find some sign that she had been heard, but other than some confused murmurs from the women, she heard nothing, and let out a sigh of relief.

 _Now, the next order of business is..._ Lucy had no clue. She had honestly expected to wake up from her dream by now, but that obviously wasn't the case. Rubbing the soreness in her wrists away, Lucy looked around her again to gain inspiration for her non-existent plan.

 **oOo**

Okay, so the streets weren't as familiar to Natsu as he thought. He ended up spending what seemed like hours trying to find the docks, but now he was here.

Running up to someone who seemed to know his way around the port, Natsu asked animatedly, "Where's the dragon!?"

The man looked up from where he had been tying knots for something that Natsu knew nothing about. "Hrm? Wha're you yapperin' on 'bout, son?" He stood up and Natsu realized how much the man towered over him. _I could still take him in a fight, though,_ he thought to himself. _I can beat anybody in a fight. Well, except for maybe Gildarts._ Natsu shivered slightly in awe of the senior member of Fiore's royal guard.

Natsu was confused. "Huh? I'm not your son! And someone said that there's a ship with a dragon here!" Natsu put two fingers up by his head to look like horns. "Where is it?"

"Don' know wha' you're talkin' 'bout," the man said again before turning to bark some orders about taking cargo off. Natsu was about to go ask him again when he felt a tiny tap on his back. Turning around, Natsu saw that the tap had belonged to a little boy, who timidly looked up at Natsu with wide eyes.

Natsu kneeled down. "What do you need?" he asked with a smile that told the boy he didn't need to be afraid of Natsu.

"You said you were looking for dragons..."

"Yes?"

"I heard someone say there is a dragon on the ship over there!"

"Over where?"

"On the end!" Natsu guessed that the boy meant the last ship in this line at the port, and was already on his way running as the boy's father called him back over to him. Once Natsu was close enough to it, he didn't refrain from jumping on, ignoring the yells of the ship workers behind him.

 **oOo**

Lucy could hear muffled shouting above her that she presumed was coming from the deck. _What's going on up there?_ she wondered. She walked carefully to the door that led to stairs to the deck to see if she could listen for some sort of clue. When the door burst open to reveal Bora, Lucy was worried she'd been caught, but he seemed to be preoccupied with worry for whatever was happening above and walked right past her towards his sword.

Through the open door, Lucy heard a voice that she thought she recognized. "Hey! I'm just here to see the dragon!" the voice called. _Natsu!?_ Lucy realized as her heart leapt in her chest. Bora was then hurrying past her again, his fake Fire Dragon in hand and the door shutting behind him. Lucy cursed at her slowness, then pressed her ear against the rough wood of the door to try and figure out what was going on. Something like 'get off!' she heard from Bora, and something like 'I want to see the dragon!' she heard again from Natsu.

Right outside the door, Lucy heard Natsu's voice shout again. "I'm coming in, Dragon!" Lucy realized after a second that the door was going to be broken down within moments, and she darted out of the line of fire.

Her fears were confirmed when there was a loud crack followed by a crash. Amidst the wood flying through the air, Lucy caught a glimpse of the man, specifically, his pink hair and bright grin, which summoned a grin onto her own face.

"Natsu! What are you doing here!?" The girls around her had started whimpering more at the noise and were worried about the intruder.

"Huh?" Natsu's head darted around while his face contorted in confusion. "Where's the dragon?" His eyes went to Lucy as she spoke, lighting his face up with excitement. "Lucy! Long time, no see!"

"We just saw each other last night!"

"That's too long," he teased. "Now where's the dragon?"

"There's no dragon here! That man," she gestured towards Bora, who stood in the door looking just as confused as Natsu. "is kidnapping women and selling them!"

"How'd you escape!?" Bora asked, referring to Lucy.

"Wait, escape? What does he mean, Lucy?" Natsu looked around and realized that everyone in the room other than he, Lucy, and the crew were bound with ropes. It was obvious to him that Lucy was supposed to have been one of those people bound, and found himself impressed that she had freed herself. He was pulled from his reverie by Bora's annoying voice.

"Why do you want to see a dragon so bad!?" Bora continued, this time speaking to Natsu. "I'll have to kill you now! You won't be of any use to my clients and you've seen too much!" Bora brandished his sword and pointed it at Natsu's chest, although he was very obviously worried of the pink-haired man.

"Hey! Your sword has a dragon, too!" _Too?_ Lucy repeated. _Does that mean..._ Natsu reached to the sheath at his belt that no one had noticed until now. The hilt was in the shape of a dragon, and obviously of a much better craftsmanship than Bora's. As the sword was pulled from its sheath with admiring eyes from its owner, Lucy was dazzled by the red tint on the metal. There was no way this was fake. This was the real Fire Dragon, which meant that Natsu... Everyone who could see Natsu shouted as they came to the same realization-

 _He's the Salamander._

"This guy's the real deal, Bora!" the fat, bald lackey shouted worriedly.

"What!?" Lucy shouted. "You're the Salamander!? Bora's been claiming that he's the Salamander of Kasai, and has been taking advantage of all sorts of people! He even kidnapped all these women, me included!"

Natsu had been looking to Lucy as she said it, but then frowned when she finished and turned to Bora, whom he had figured out was the man in front of him. "You're saying that you're the Salamander of Kasai? Well dang, that just puts us in a bit of trouble, doesn't it? I always thought that I was the Salamander!" Natsu joked, before launching himself into battle, his eyes lighting with a fiery passion with every clang of their swords.

Natsu was pushing Bora backwards, each of his attacks making Bora move closer to the door up to the hold. Each step had the bumbler tripping over the broken wood littering the floor. Because of this, the fight had ended up on the deck. Lucy followed, being intrigued, and all eyes in the port were eventually also watching. If Lucy had had any doubt before, then it was obvious now that Natsu was the legendary Salamander. Every one of his movements showed years of practice and skill, both of the honed and natural variety. Lucy could also tell that if he really wanted to, Natsu could bring forth even more power.

Lucy looked at Natsu's face to see a look of thought, as if he was trying to figure something out. While he easily parried Bora's pathetic attacks, Natsu looked around, and his eyes fell on Lucy again.

"Lucy, go get the City Guard!" he told her, grinning at the sight of her again. Lucy nodded and climbed down the ramp resting on the side of the ship as she made her way to the shore. _Natsu's sure dragging this battle out. He loves to duel._ She rolled her eyes, but smiled. Just from the very little that she had spoken with Natsu, Lucy felt as if she had known him for years. She almost grinned at that thought, but then suddenly remembered that this was a dream. _Perhaps that's why I feel like I know him well. Because I invented him._ That thought saddened her a bit. _I don't know why I created a persona for the Salamander, though. I've never really thought about him a whole lot before now._

Lucy ran around the corner that connected the port to the city itself and saw a group of about five guards running towards her. She recognized a couple of the women leading the guards towards the port, yelling senseless phrases that included words like 'kidnapped', 'fight', and 'Salamander'. Lucy nodded to a guard that was giving her a questioning look, and then she ran back to the ship, speeding ahead of the group, eager to watch Natsu fight some more. They had ended up fighting in the street of the port now. Natsu noticed Lucy and grinned for a reason he didn't understand, then saw the guards behind her. At that, he lifted his foot up and kicked his adversary in the chest, knocking him to ground winded. Then, he ran forward, grabbed Lucy's hand, and dragged her in the direction opposite of the guards running down the road.

"Ah!" Lucy yelped in surprise. "Where are you taking me!?"

"I dunno!" he answered simply. "But I wanna spend more time with you!"

"Shouldn't we explain things to the soldiers?"

Natsu sweat dropped. "Nah. The Guard doesn't really like the Salamander. He's done a lot of destructive things." Lucy and Natsu both laughed as they started to slow down. They leaned against a wall, still laughing.

"So, Natsu the Salamander, huh?"

"Yup!"

"How did I come up with you?" Lucy asked rhetorically.

"Huh?" Natsu didn't know what to make of her comment.

"Since this is a dream-"

"Wait, I'm dreaming?" Natsu knew that he had been dreaming the last time he'd met Lucy, but, "I thought I just happened to meet you in Hargeon."

"Yeah, this is a dream. I would never be somewhere like this in real life." Natsu didn't have time to ponder on that comment before Lucy continued. "This is a real town? I thought I imagined it. Are you not just part of my dream? I thought I made you up, too!"

"Nah, I'm real! Or, I think I am. Pretty sure."

"Wait, so I met the real Salamander in my dreams!? You actually exist!?"

"Are you trying to put me through an existential crisis?" Natsu asked Lucy, although completely butchering the pronunciation of 'existential'.

"No, I'm sorry," Lucy apologized, not bothering to correct him. "This is just hard to believe. Why aren't you skeptical about this? That you're sharing dreams with an actual, real-life person?"

"I guess because it's even harder for me to believe that I would make up a girl." They laughed, and Lucy got the feeling again that she knew Natsu as well as she knew any of her other friends. But this time, knowing he was real, she possessed no sad feelings about it. It felt like they had known each other long ago and were just catching up again. Lucy knew that couldn't be the case though. She would've remembered Natsu. "Even if she is a weirdo," Natsu added, making Lucy puff her cheeks in anger at him. That just caused more laughter to erupt from the pink-haired menace, and he wrapped his arm around her to pull her against his side. Lucy smiled up at him and leaned into the hug, her head laying on his shoulder.

"Do you think this will keep happening? Us sharing dreams, I mean."

"I don't know, but I hope so. It's fun to spend time with you, even if we're just sitting and talking like this." Lucy had a feeling that Natsu rarely liked to just sit and talk, and a warm feeling was bubbling in her chest at the thought that Natsu enjoyed it with her.

"Well, this adventurous dream has been the most fun I've had in a while. If we were working together the whole time, then I'm sure it would be even more enjoyable."

Natsu smiled. "I'd like that. I'd like for us to have an adventure together." Then, interrupting Lucy's warm thoughts, she felt a tug in the back of her mind. She also noticed that fog had started rolling in around them, as if nothing existed in their dream world anymore besides them and the wall they were leaning against.

"I think I'm waking, Natsu. I'll see you tonight, I hope," Lucy said as she took his hand in her own and squeezed it. They smiled at each other, and then the dreamed up version of Hargeon was completely gone as they woke up in their beds with peaceful morning light in shades of gold and violet streaming in through their windows.

 **oOo**

A woman approached Hades, King of Baram, in the throne room.

"My liege, you requested me?" she bowed. Her words and stature were respectful, but her tone constantly sounded a bit haughty.

"Yes, Angel. I just thought I should let you know that the generals will be coming in to work on our plans," he told her. "Make sure the slaves have cleaned out the tactical room since Jackal's..." Hades shuddered with disdain. "Party last night."

"Yes, right away, sire." Angel paused. "If I may ask, sire, plans? Will Baram be making a bigger move than just reconnaissance?" Angel always demanded to be in the know.

"Your job is to control the castle slaves, Angel. You've always been good at that. There's no reason for you to know of Baram's plans," Hades reminded her.

"Yes, my liege. I was simply curious. As a citizen of Baram..." Angel turned to leave. "Caelum!" she called for the worker.

Hades smirked and gave a light chuckle. "As a citizen of Baram... I guess you have a right to know. You may attend the meeting as a sort of representative of the slaves. Be sure Caelum has the room clean."

Angel nodded, keeping her own smirk hidden as she walked away.

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you for reading, favoriting, and following!**

 **And a big thank you to NerdmomDM, DemonicSpider, Larissa, MasterGildarts, 123, and xHallowedFangirlx for reviewing!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: This one is a bit shorter than I try to gear towards, whoops.**

* * *

Lucy was giddy as she awoke. She couldn't explain why the thought that Natsu was a real life person made her so happy, but it did. Perhaps she was happy to have a connection to adventure. _But why did it happen,_ anyways _? What caused Natsu and me to begin sharing dreams? It sounds like something from a book!_

And then her musings were burst through by the sounds of Bora's muffled shouting. She couldn't understand what he was saying, only hearing incoherent yells, but her curiosity was piqued, so she quickly dressed into proper clothing and hurried out of her room and down the stairs.

Unnoticed by anyone in the room, Lucy watched from the bottom of the stairs as several Fioran royal guardsmen tried to take Bora outside. "How did you find out!? How!?" Bora continually shouted, gaining no response from the soldiers. "I kept it all hidden! There's no way you could've pinpointed me!"

"Stop shouting, because we did. We request that you come quietly, Lord Prominence." Lucy's father looked confused and worried as he watched, Lucy noticed. _Probably worried about the news hurting our reputation in some way._

"Lucy!" the women heard from the top of the stairs. Looking up, she saw Levy hurriedly, but carefully, coming towards her. "You're already up! I was just going to go wake you!"

"What's going on?" Lucy asked the bluenette.

"Apparently Bora was involved in a human trafficking scandal! He would attract women by posing as the Salamander, then kidnap them and sell them! That's part of why the Titanose marriage was broken off! The Titanose family found out because he tried to snatch some of their servant women as well as Lady Titanose herself, but they didn't want to report it, lest their reputation was hurt! They just found evidence last night in Hargeon that Bora was the one arranging everything!" Lucy was stunned. That had been her dream! She and Natsu had apprehended Bora! Had her dream been her legitimately leaving the manor, going to the port town, meeting up with Natsu, and defeating Bora!? _But that doesn't even make sense! Besides the basic craziness of that, Bora has been here, so there's no way Natsu and I could've defeated him in real-life Hargeon!_

"Do you know if..." Lucy started. What should she ask? "Do you know if... The real Salamander was involved?"

"Hm? No, not that I know of. Apparently, a couple of the City Guard found the warehouse where he was keeping the women he kidnapped for transportation. Why?" Lucy didn't know where Levy managed to get her information, but she was thankful for the bluenette's great ability to do so.

"Uh, no reason. Just curious." The look on Levy's face told her that she was incredulous, and Lucy knew that she would have to share the details of her dream to her lady-in-waiting later.

Lucy's father turned around and started speaking to the girls. "You two... Keep quiet about this."

"Father, it is not as if we can keep this a secret. Bora was a nobleman. The public is going to know. And since he was arrested at our manor, there is little possibility of us avoiding being brought into this by gossipers."

"You're probably right, Lucy," he said with a sigh before walking away towards where Lucy knew his study was. Lucy was certain that he would be figuring out another suitor for her and sighed. She felt a tug on her arm and looked to Levy, who was giving her a stern look that said, 'you tell me what you were worried about right now or I will murder you." Lucy laughed lightly, immediately missing how loud and how much she could laugh with Natsu, and they headed back to her bedchamber.

They opened the door leading into the first of Lucy's rooms and sat on her velvet loveseat. "Tell me what you were wondering about," Levy insisted. "Now," she added, more forceful.

"Okay," Lucy breathed out. She was probably going to get a lot of questions from Levy that she wouldn't be able to answer, but Levy would probably have some good insight, too. "All right. Okay. Just... Don't freak out. It started ereyesterday..." And Lucy told Levy about the first dream she'd shared with Natsu.

"Okay, so you dreamed about a guy. I assume there's more?" Levy said, implying that Lucy must continue. Lucy nodded, and then began telling her friend about when she had dreamed of the port town. "So, you dreamed about Bora pretending to be Salamander before anyone even knew of his ploy?" Lucy confirmed, then went on. "Hmm... a lot of the details between the dream and the real thing are different. But how do you know that this "Natsu" person is real, and is the Salamander?" _Natsu... Have I heard that name before?,_ Levy wondered to herself. It sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it.

"Well, after he kicked Bora down, he grabbed my hand and we ran off. He hadn't even realized that he was dreaming, and the way he was speaking and acting just didn't seem like something that I would imagine. He was so boisterous! Besides, why would I imagine a person to be Salamander? I've never really thought about him before." Lucy reiterated her thoughts from her dream.

"Natsu the Salamander..." Levy trailed off as she thought about the rest of Lucy's theory. The gears in her head were spinning. "That logic makes sense, although nothing else does. Why do you think this happened? Why did you suddenly meet the supposed Salamander in your dreams? Why was your dream based around something real that you hadn't known about? Why-"

"I don't know! I don't know anything about this! I was hoping that you might know something!"

"Well, the only thing I can think of is kind of ridiculous..."

"What is it?" Lucy would welcome any sort of idea, considering she hadn't come up with one.

"Soulmates!" Levy said with a grin.

Any idea except that one. "Levy, that sort of thing is only in fairy tales!" She may love fairy tales, but nothing in them was ever real. Princesses didn't live 'happily ever afters'. At least not princesses named Lucy Heartfilia.

Levy laughed, not knowing the bitter thoughts her friend had. "I know, I know. I'll do some searching. Maybe I can find some sort of explanation. But you need to tell me about each and every one of the dreams you have with Salamander." Lucy nodded, and was about to speak again before a knock protruded from her door.

"Lady Lucy, you have some work to take care of in the study. And if Lady Levy is with you, Mrs. Spetto wanted to speak with her." The girls spoke their understanding to the servant beyond the door, then nodded to one another, knowing that it was time for the day's events.

 **oOo**

"Good morning, Mom!" Natsu greeted as he bounded into the dining room for breakfast, where only his mother sat.

"Wow, honey! You never smile so early in the morning! Good dream?"

Natsu laughed as the image of Lucy with her cheeks puffed out popped into his head. "Yep!" he answered his mother. "Weird one! Amazing one! Best one I've ever had!" He grabbed a muffin and quickly scarfed it down before saying, "I'm gonna go find Gray and kick his butt," he said, interrupting his mother from questioning more about the dream.

Grandine laughed. "I'm not sure you want to. We have a visitor from Fiore that should be arriving at any time." The look of terror on Natsu's face as the boy realized his mother's implications caused Grandine to laugh again.

"Erza's returning!?" Natsu groaned out. Grandine nodded her confirmation, and Natsu was immediately out the door towards the barracks in order to warn the knights and trainees of Erza's return. Natsu was afraid, and with good reason. Erza Scarlet was a red-headed female who was said to be the top knight in all of Fiore, and she just so happened to be part of the Fairy Tail division, as Natsu and Gray, as well as many others, were. Erza often visited the Dragneel castle, and whenever she caught Natsu fighting with someone, she beat the living daylights out of him. In fact, anyone she caught fighting would get a beating. Every single one of the Kasai knights both respected and feared her. They wanted to fight her to test their strength, and yet they didn't want to be knocked into next winter. The woman was a beast on the battlefield. She always had dozens of weapons on her that were pulled seemingly from nowhere. The woman had shortswords, longswords, claymores, halberds, scythes, rapiers, sickles, axes, maces, bastard swords, daggers, staves... Natsu couldn't even name all the weapons he had seen her wield. She did have two swords that she definitely favored, however. They were a pair of broadswords that she would use together, called her "Heaven's Wings". It was a fitting name, because the guards were fashioned after angel wings. Erza also had lots of different armor, but she didn't demonstrate different armor as much as she did weapons. At the thought of females and weapons, Natsu couldn't help but wonder if Lucy knew how to fight, and what kind of weapon she would wield.

Natsu entered the building where most of the knights lived. As far as quarters for the knights of Kasai went, the exceptions of boarding in these barracks were few. Skiadrum, Atlas, Metalicana, and Weisslogia, all part of Igneel and Grandine's personal guard, were housed within the main structure of the castle. Gray, being the prince's attendant, also had quarters within the castle. Just then, though, Gray happened to be at the barracks, talking to some of the other soldiers and trainees. Before Natsu could announce why he was there, a certain blond yelled to him.

"Hey, Natsu! I want to fight you!" Natsu was very close to accepting, a hand already on the Fire Dragon's hilt to fight against Sting, the son of Weisslogia, and his "Holy Light" longsword, but then he remembered why he was there. He shook his head furiously.

"I can't right now, Sting! Erza's coming!" At the mention of the red-haired monster, the men in the room were instantly in a rush, running around like headless chickens, trying to make the barracks clean and presentable.

"Lady Erza is returning? How delightful!" A small, female voice spoke up from the back of the room Natsu was in.

"Wendy? What are you doing here?" As he said it, his blue-haired teenaged sister appeared in his line of sight.

"Hello, Natsu!" Wendy greeted. "Romeo was complaining about a migraine again, so I came down to give him some medicine." Natsu rolled his eyes, but his face held a smirk. While he may not be thinking of romance, his sister and the dark-haired trainee certainly were. When even Natsu could tell that they had crushes on one another, it was pretty obvious. Romeo was the son of a veteran soldier from Fiore, but due to circumstances that Natsu didn't know, Romeo and his father had ended up living in Kasai, which, obviously, was where Romeo was training to be a knight. The boy was already set to be in the Fairy Tail division once his training was complete.

"Hey Natsu, you gonna challenge Erza again?" Gray remarked snidely. Gray was teasing Natsu for the last time Erza had been there, when Natsu had wanted to fight her and ended up being knocked out for two whole days. Not that Gray knew firsthand. Erza had caught him running around with only his underwear on, and so she had knocked him out for two days as well. Natsu hated the tone in Gray's voice, so he blurted out something that he just knew he would come to regret.

"Yeah, sure!"

"What!? Are you crazy!?," at least five people shouted at Natsu.

"Nah! I've gotten stronger since last time! I can take her!" Most of the men rolled their eyes, muttered 'it's your funeral' under their breath, or started their bets on how quickly it would take for Natsu to be knocked out. Natsu was about to yell his annoyance at their reactions when they heard a pounding knock at the door. A hush fell over the usually loud knights. Natsu didn't know who it was, but somebody shoved him forward towards the door. Putting on an attempted confident look, Natsu reached for the handle and opened the door.

"At rest, men!" Igneel said with a laugh as he entered the barracks. "I'm not Erza!"

"Hey, Dad." Natsu sighed in relief. "Why are you here? Where's Erza?"

Igneel addressed all the men in the room as he spoke. "She didn't come here to visit, apparently. She 'regretfully does not have time to check on the knights'." The men in room whooped and hollered at having avoided her. "But," Igneel continued, speaking specifically to Natsu. "She'd like to talk to you."

Natsu groaned. "Do I have to?"

"Better get going!" Igneel said with a laugh. "Don't want to keep her waiting! She's in the entrance hall." Natsu 'eep'ed, and then pushed past his dad to get inside. Gray decided to follow.

"Where are you going?" The red-haired king asked.

"If she's gonna beat him up, I want to see it." There was a laugh, and then Gray was on his way again.

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you for reading, following, and favoriting!**

 **Thank you especially to 123, Minsie, MasterGildarts, and Larissa for reviewing!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: And now this chapter is a bit longer than I try to shoot for, hehe**

* * *

Natsu walked carefully into the entrance hall, where Erza was waiting for him. Mystogan was standing beside her and they'd obviously been talking, but upon Natsu's appearance, the man gave a nod to Erza and left. Natsu gave a wary glance after him, but said nothing.

Erza sighed. "Good morning, Natsu. It's been a while," she greeted as he approached. The door opened again, and Gray was at their sides. Erza nodded to acknowledge his presence while Natsu glared at him. Gray returned it. The glares were hidden from Erza of course, to prevent her from knocking them in the heads. "Unfortunately, there's no time for us to catch up. I need your assistance, and Gray's would be great as well. I'm glad he's here. His power may be useful against some of the adversaries we may fight."

"Uh, what do you need help from us for?" Natsu asked.

"It involves Baram." The boys both sucked in a breath. Erza had been directly affected by Baram. The boys didn't quite know the details, but they knew she'd suffered a great deal at their hands. Natsu had been born nearly a year after the Baram Wars, and Gray had only been a very little baby when they happened, but they had heard many tales about how dreadful it had been. The adults had told them quite vividly about when they had heard about the very sudden devastation that Koori and Celestia had felt as well as how terrible the terror of having to go into battle against that force had been. A huge chunk of Fiore and Kasai's forces had been killed, but the same could be said about Baram. Baram had been pushed away from Fiore and Kasai, and the war had been stopped. Everyone knew, though, that as they approached the twenty year mark since the end of the war, that Baram would have rebuilt their forces and would be making some moves.

"What have they done?" Gray asked next.

"They've sent a small division of soldiers through Fiore's borders. When I first discovered their presence, I thought they were just on a scouting mission; they would come here, get information, then go back. Unfortunately, that's not why they're here. At least not anymore." Erza sighed. "They've left Fiore and crossed into Kasai. They were searching for a target village to attack."

"And they've chosen one in Kasai?" Natsu said with anger.

"Yes. I believe they've chosen to attack Onibas."

Gray held onto the prince's shoulder to keep him grounded. Natsu hadn't been to that particular village in a while, nor did he go very often, but he cared for his people. It was a principle his father had raised him on.

"And I'm assuming they're planning on a bloody massacre." Natsu hadn't asked it as a question, merely stating what was certainly a fact.

"From what I gathered, yes."

"I'm in," Gray replied immediately.

Natsu thought for a second, earning glares from both his companions. "I'll help too. We can't let innocent people be hurt. But Erza, I have one condition."

"And what's that?" Erza asked seriously.

"I wanna challenge you to a duel afterwards!"

Erza sighed, but held a small smile on her lips. "Alright. But I won't hold back. Let's be on our way soon. Gather what you need quickly." The boys nodded, then headed towards their bedrooms to get their traveling gear ready to go.

"I didn't think you were serious about challenging her! Are you an idiot!?"

Usually, Gray calling him an idiot would make Natsu punch him in the face, but an image popped into his head from his first dream with Lucy, with her face flushed in embarrassment as she called him an idiot. He smiled at the thought and said, "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

Gray gave him a weird look, but decided not to comment. _If Natsu wants to be weird, then let him_. Before long, they arrived at their respective quarters and started to gather supplies.

After gathering supplies, Natsu, Gray, and Erza left for their destination. Onibas was close to the border of Kasai and Baram, and according to Erza's calculations, they would arrive about midday tomorrow on horseback, just in time to stop the group from Baram, who would most likely be arriving in the middle of the morning. So, the rest of the day, they rode on their horses towards Onibas. At around seven, they ended up lost in a forest due to Natsu's 'good' sense of direction. They'd wandered in it for an hour before finally making it out. As soon as they had made it out, a group of bandits had shown up to rob them, but they were easily dispatched. At around ten, they all decided that it was getting to be too dark to keep going, and the horses were also too tired. They checked into an inn, and all three were sleeping within a few minutes.

All day, Natsu had tried to keep focused on his tasks. He'd tried to keep his mind on the fact that they needed to get to Onibas as soon as possible. However, this proved extremely hard. Whenever Erza would start shouting in frustration or Gray called him an idiot, Lucy's puffed out cheeks and own calling him out on being an idiot popped into his head. Besides that, his thoughts just kept trailing back to Lucy and reminding him how fun and weird and _amazing_ she seemed. _Those words don't even really describe her well,_ Natsu thought, but he'd never been good with words, so he couldn't really explain just how much he'd come to like her even after just talking to her twice. He felt as if they'd talked much, much more than just twice. There was just something about her, and Natsu couldn't stop thinking about his weirdo.

As they wandered the forest and Erza forced him to shut up and let her lead, Natsu started to wonder how Lucy would like doing something like this. Maybe not the "heading to Onibas to stop an evil plot" part, but just exploring a forest. He smiled as he imagined it. She'd probably be excited at first, chattering about how fun it was, but then she'd start whining about getting hungry and how he ate all the food too quickly.

 _"How did you eat it all!? I packed three bags for us!"_

 _A laugh. "We needed at least ten!"_

Had he imagined that? It seemed more like he had been remembering something. _That was weird._ His head was pounding again. Had he hit his head on a tree branch or something? Natsu shrugged and didn't think anything more of it.

Meanwhile, Lucy's day had been filled with much less adventure than Natsu's, not that she expected otherwise. She'd never had an adventure in real life, and she didn't expect that to change anytime soon. She had spent the day studying, much longer than she normally did since she had to make up for not studying the day before. She'd had a lunch with her father and some noble that she didn't recall the name of and a supper with a different one. Neither had been suitors, thankfully enough, merely business partners to her father. The second one had stayed for a while, drinking with her father while Lucy stayed to be her father's trophy. At around ten, she was dismissed to her room, since the noble decided that he would be going to a nearby town for more 'fun' that night. Lucy was certainly ready for him to leave and she to go to sleep.

She'd thought about Natsu quite a bit throughout the day, ending up comparing him to the bastards she was forced to spend her time with. The nobles had both smiled plenty during their visit, but she found herself wishing that it was Natsu's bright, cheery grin she was with rather than the smarmy smirks her father's visitors had in common.

As the second visitor drank with her father and Lucy was forced to stay with them, she started to think more about Natsu and how much better her day would be with him around. _Even if we were to spend all day watching grass grow, it'd be indefinitely more fun than this._ Although, Lucy knew that he would never let that be the only event of the day. Even after merely two days, she felt like she knew Natsu better than she knew even herself, which kind of scared her, if she was being honest. If Natsu were here, or in any manor or castle for that matter, she knew he would probably demand a fight with any and all guards, and probably scale the walls once he finished that. Then, he'd probably go swimming in the garden fountain just to annoy her. She smiled as she pictured Natsu laughing while swimming in a pond, dripping wet in the knight's outfit she'd seen him in in their last dream.

 _"Haha! I scared you! You should see the look on your face!"_

 _"I can't believe you! I was so worried, you moron!"_

Lucy gasped as the words went through her head. She hadn't imagined that, and yet it had been she and Natsu's voices. It had almost been like replaying a memory, but where had it come from? The back of her mind was pulsing again.

She shook her head. _No, I had to have imagined it. Natsu and I only just met._

They came into their dream within seconds of each other. This dream held a valley with a stream running through it, dew covered grass, and wildflowers of pink and blue and yellow. The sides of rocky, snow-capped mountains created walls around the valley and a crisp chill was permanently in the air. A light mist enveloped the scene.

"Lucy!" Natsu called excitedly as the 17-year-old woman appeared in the dream. "You're here!" He wrapped the girl in his arms as a greeting as well as to quell the slight shiver she gave at the cold.

"Natsu! Goodness, am I ready for an adventure!" she laughed against his shoulder. "Especially after the boring day I went through!"

"Aw, it can't have been that boring!" Natsu teased as he released her, still holding her in front of him from her shoulders.

"Well, let's see, I studied, and then I studied more, and then I studied more. After that, I had some boring meals and boring conversations with boring people."

Natsu groaned, because he himself could think of more than a few days he'd had like that. "Yeah, that does sound boring..."

"I told you," Lucy commented with a smirk. "Oh, yeah, and that guy you defeated in the last dream? Apparently he had the same sort of scandal in real life, too. He was arrested today."

"Wow. That's weird. But it's pretty cool, too! Glad he was caught!" Lucy nodded her agreement. "Well, since you're craving excitement, let's go climb that mountain!" Natsu gestured to the closest of the seemingly frigid mountains.

Lucy gaped. "What!? No way! It seems cold, and besides! I've never even been close to a mountain! Let alone climb one!"

"Aw, relax! Look! We can use that ledge as a footpath! It won't be that difficult to walk! Even in that skirt you're wearing!"

Lucy looked at the ledge Natsu had pointed out and decided that he was right; it would be easy enough to walk on it. It also winded up all the way to the top. It would probably be quite fun. But... "That still doesn't solve the problem of it being cold!"

"It's not that cold!" Natsu exclaimed with a laugh.

"Well, you're wearing a cloak!" Lucy retorted, gesturing to the black velvet cloak that was wrapped around Natsu's shoulders. "I'm not!" All that Lucy wore was a simple short-sleeved blue and yellow gown, something more akin to a lady-in-waiting than a noble.

"Should have worn something warmer!" Natsu teased. "It's not my fault you didn't!"

"Well, it's not my fault, either! It doesn't seem like we get to choose what we're wearing in our dreams!"

"Since this is a dream, why don't you try to just will the cold away? Close your eyes and just tell yourself that it's not cold!" Natsu suggested.

Lucy sighed, then attempted his idea. She shut her eyes, and after a few seconds of thinking, _It's not cold_ , warmth seemed to surround her, although it wasn't because of her wish. Opening her eyes, Lucy realized that Natsu had wrapped his cloak around her. Lucy gave a light chuckle. "Why did you do that? Aren't you going to be cold now?" she teased, poking him in the chest.

Natsu laughed. "I've never gotten cold easily!" he said, putting his hands on his hips to show some sort of authority he had over the cold. _But I can't just leave it at that. No, I've gotta tease her_ , Natsu thought, suddenly wanting to see her cheeks puffed out again. "And besides, I didn't wanna hear your complaining!" Just as Natsu wished, Lucy's cheeks puffed out as she tried to figure out a response. He laughed until he was cut off by Lucy's retort.

"Well- I- I don't want to hear you complaining about the cold later, either! And no takebacks! You already gave me your cloak!" And with that, she stomped towards the ledge.

Unfortunately, Lucy didn't know what she was going to do at the ledge. While it did wind all the way up the mountain, it didn't actually meet the ground. The shortest point in the ledge was a few inches taller than her. _Alright_ , she thought. _I've just got to try and lift myself up._ Lucy reached her arms up and put the palms of her hands against the rock. She started to push down and attempted to clamber up with her feet, but the only thing she managed to do was slip, fall, and land one of her feet into the freezing water of the stream. _Guh. Stupid dress_. Lucy heard Natsu burst into laughter as she stood up and shook her boot, skirt, and foot dry enough for some comfort. Whipping around to face him angrily, she yelled. "Hey! Stop laughing! I told you I've never climbed anything!"

"Heh, sorry, Luce," Natsu apologized as his laugh spluttered to a stop.

"'Luce'?" Lucy asked, her anger forgotten for the moment. The woman felt a strange elation, familiarity, and relief sweep through her at hearing Natsu's voice say the nickname.

 _"Luce?"_

 _"Yeah! It's a cute nickname for you! It's short for-"_

The random internal conversation cut off, and Lucy ignored it and the headache that came along with it in order to listen to Natsu.

"Huh? Oh, yeah! It's a cute nickname for you! It's short for Lucy!" Lucy's brows furrowed. He'd used the same wording and everything as the weird memory-that-had-never-happened. What the heck? "Unless you like 'Loony' better," he teased.

Lucy choked on her saliva as she playfully smacked him in the head. "What!? No! I hated that! Don't call me 'Loony'!"

"Oh, yeah! I remember! Your favorite nickname is 'Weirdo!'"

"Ugh! No way! And I'm not weird!" she cried while waving her arms in front of her and shaking her head almost to the point of dizziness.

"I don't know," Natsu chuckled. "You're acting pretty weird. But I'll stick with 'Luce'." He grinned, causing Lucy to just puff her cheeks out again in annoyance and turn around to try the ledge again. Natsu chuckled again as she struggled to get up, then moved behind her. He put his hands at the her waist to help lift Lucy up.

Natsu' hands there lit some sort of light in her head, like it dawned on her that that was where they _belonged._ They felt so right there, like her hips were molded perfectly for his hands to hold her there. The one holding her noticed the _perfectness,_ too, and had to pause for a bit in appreciation. He'd found he really liked touching her. She and him had apparently formed a very touchy-feely friendship. But he loved that. Wanted more of that. _Craved_ more of that because it felt _so right._

"Help me up now?" Lucy asked with a dazzling smile.

Natsu smiled down at her affectionately before laughing again. "Yeah." He approached her again and carefully held her as he lifted her up onto the ledge so that she was sitting on it. After knowing that she was secure, he let go. Lucy held onto a good sized rock sticking out of the side of the mountain to brace herself as she dragged her legs up onto the crevice.

"Now how are you going to get up?" Lucy asked, looking down at him.

Natsu just chuckled and said, "Stand back." She did so, and in the next second she saw Natsu basically launch his way up onto the ledge from just one push of his hands on its surface. Except then he slipped and fell of the ledge.

Right into the stream.

Where his back was instantaneously soaked in freezing water.

"God dammit!" he shouted, jumping up and whining at Lucy's laughing. He (more carefully) got back onto the ledge aside Lucy, where he continued to mock pout at her giggles.

"Aw, is my Salamander all wet? Poor boy..." Lucy teased in a baby voice, helping him up and running her fingers through his wet locks. "You aren't hurt?" this time she asked with genuine concern.

"Nah, I don't get hurt easily." Lucy could tell that that meant he probably didn't care even if he was seriously injured, like, say, stabbed. And it wasn't just his words that made her guess that. She had fleeting feelings in her hands and memories in her mind of taking care of a stab wound of his. But she dismissed it, knowing that such a thing hadn't happened.

"That may be so," she replied. "But you should still take care of yourself. Or at least let other people take care of you." Lucy got a shrug from him and she rolled her eyes as she turned to go onward.

 _"You're going to pass out from the blood loss if you don't get it bandaged!"_

 _"Nah, I'm fine!"_

 _"Guh! Only you could get this badly hurt from training! I knew you were going to take it too far!"_

"Wha...?" Lucy started as the new weird-memory-thing ended.

"Luce?" _Am I bleeding?_ Natsu asked himself as he heard the words. No, nothing was bleeding, he assessed after looking at himself. _What the hell?_

Lucy shook her head. "No. It's nothing."

Lucy tentatively took a step, a hand on the wall beside her, and nearly shrieked when a few of the rocks crumbled from under her hand. The scare had caused her to retract her hand and nearly slip, but she balanced herself before it had happened. She took another step, this one more solid, but still nervous. Then, she felt Natsu put a hand on her shoulder.

"Let me go first," he said. "I don't want the mountain to crumble out beneath you if you step somewhere weak." Lucy didn't know whether to take it as an insult or not, but she nodded and stepped aside to let him pass. After a few seconds, she heard him speak again. "Actually, you know what? I think I wanna walk behind you. I can keep an eye on you that way." Lucy rolled her eyes, but stepped aside to let him pass again because, frankly, she felt a lot better knowing he could watch her.

"Now let's go! Lucy exclaimed. "I feel like we've been here forever and we haven't even started our hike!" Lucy tossed her head back and grinned to Natsu, earning one in return, before looking forwards again and taking another step, this one much more steady than her other ones.

Natsu's smile grew with every step they took on the trail. Lucy was still being careful on the mountain, as she should be, but she was getting more confident. They didn't talk too much at first, but Natsu and Lucy found that just being in each other's company was enjoyable.

As they moved up the mountain, their platform changed from plain, gray rock to plain, gray rock that housed wildlife. "Look!" Lucy shouted excitedly about a purple-flowered vine that marked the start of the wildlife's appearance. "It's a passionflower! I've always wanted to see one! Back home, I've got a book..." Natsu listened to Lucy's voice as she told him about several flowers she had read about and seen drawings of back at her home. He could admit that flowers were often very beautiful, but he'd never paid attention much, especially not to their names. Listening to Lucy, though, he'd learned what a lot of them were called.

He suddenly saw a vision in his mind of a grinning Lucy as she showed him a flower crown and then proceeded to put it on him.

"There's so many beautiful ones here!" Lucy shouted, yanking Natsu out of his memory. Wait, not a memory. That hadn't happened. Had it? It almost seemed like it had, but it certainly hadn't. Had it? _Great, now I'm even more confused._ "My very favorite flower is... Well, I mean it's not really a flower... And it's- it's weird, anyways." Lucy started to trail off as she realized that she'd been chattering.

"What is it?" Natsu urged her back on, genuinely curious.

"It's a dandelion." Natsu let out a snicker. "Hey! Don't laugh!" Lucy scolded as she turned to him. There were those puffed out cheeks again.

"Well, it took me by surprise," Natsu defended. "But I like it. Probably because it's so weird." Lucy let out another cry of indignance. "Why a dandelion, though?" He wanted to know why she had picked such a common flower -no, weed- for her favorite flower.

"I've just heard that they're a beautiful, bright golden color, and that reminds me of the sun and summer, and I love summer-"

"Wait, 'heard'?"

Lucy balled up part of Natsu's cloak in her hands. "I've... never actually seen a dandelion. Or really any wildflowers. That's why I was so excited to see these ones." She gestured to the stone wall covered in flowering vines.

"How!? Dandelions grow everywhere!"

"I don't really get out much, and our gardens are extremely well-tended." Natsu stared at her in confusion. Just who was this girl, and why had she never been anywhere that freaking dandelions had grown? Before he could ponder upon it more, they heard a loud growl, but it wasn't from either of their stomachs.

"What was that!?" Lucy shouted, gripping the cloak and backing up a little, bumping into Natsu. When they looked at each other, Natsu could tell that Lucy didn't know what to make of the situation; whether or not she should be scared. Natsu gave her a grin of confidence.

"Don't worry! It's just part of the adventure!" Natsu grabbed Lucy's hand and pulled her ahead, towards where the noise had come. It wasn't long before they found themselves at the mouth of a deep, dark cave. Another growl resounded, but this time Lucy wasn't nervous about it. Natsu exuded confidence, and she had absorbed it.

"What do you think it is?" Lucy asked.

"I hope it's a monster!" Natsu replied with excitement. Lucy scoffed, but still smiled, at the answer. Sure enough, though, Natsu had been correct. In the next instant, a giant boar-like beast came barreling out of the cave. Lucy shrieked and darted for cover, but Natsu grinned in excitement and grabbed the hilt to the Fire Dragon that had suddenly appeared at his waist (dream reality was convenient).

It hadn't taken Natsu very long to dispatch the monster, but every second of the few minutes he took had been awe-worthy, just as with the fight against Bora Lucy had seen. The way his sword moved sporadically, but also calculated, the way the light glinted off the red-tinged blade, the way Natsu's face grew a wide, proud grin... It all enchanted her. Part of Lucy had wanted it to go on for longer, but she also wanted to continue onwards.

 _"Hey, watch this, Luce!" A zing resounded as swords met._

Lucy shook her head as the confusing sounds left her head. That had happened quite a bit now. At first, she'd been willing to push it off to the side and believe it was just her imagination, but it was too weird, too clear, too _real_ for the conversations she'd heard to be imagined up. Why had it happened so much in just this last ten minutes or so or however long they'd been sleeping? It had happened once the entire time she'd been awake and never before that, but now... One thing was for sure: Lucy had something to tell Levy once she woke up.

The monster defeated and disappeared thanks to the dream reality, Natsu turned to Lucy with his grin, and smiled a little more when he saw the look of amazement on Lucy's face. They started their journey up the mountain again, and he started up their conversation.

"How come you never jumped in there?" he asked.

"Huh?"

"The fight with that monster." Natsu gestured backward. "You never joined in!"

"Of course not! I don't know the first thing about fighting!" Lucy replied as if it were obvious.

"What!?" Natsu exclaimed. Lucy looked back at him to see that he was looking at her like she had two heads.

"What?" Why was he so surprised that a noblewoman didn't know how to use a weapon? _Wait, does he even know that I'm a noblewoman?_

"How could you not know how to fight!?"

Lucy shrugged. "I've never been taught to defend myself."

"You really should know how to use a weapon. What if you get into a fight?"

Lucy snorted. "With my life, it would be a surprise to get into a fight or any sort of dangerous situation. Besides in these dreams, of course." There was another remark that Natsu didn't understand. Why had she never seen dandelions, and what kind of life did she have where she would never end up in a fight?

"Besides, Father would have a fit if I was wearing even a dress this simple," she continued, gesturing to her clothing. "Let alone wearing pants." Natsu was confused again. Why couldn't she wear simple clothing? Did she always have to look... Elegant? Was that the word? "It'd probably be hard to maneuver in fights with a dress. Although, I have seen Erza do it before..." Lucy added as an afterthought.

Natsu shuddered at the mention if his current daytime companion. "Wait, you know Erza?" He asked after a second.

"Yes, I do!" Lucy said proudly with a smile. "You know her, too?" She asked, surprised. Although maybe she shouldn't have been. Erza was a knight after all, and so was he. Not to mention Natsu happened to be in the Fairy Tail division, if the patch sewn onto the cloak she wore was any indication.

"I'm actually with that monster woman right now! When I was awake, anyways!"

"'Monster woman'? What makes her a monster?"

"Everything! She's scary! The stupid stripper and I have to pretend to actually like each other when she's around, or she'll beat us up!"

"'Stupid stripper'?"

"The idiot that's also traveling with Erza and I. Gray's his name, and I have to deal with him much more than I'd like to." Lucy laughed, and Natsu joined in.

Lucy clutched the cloak tighter as the air grew colder. She turned around to look at Natsu and continued walking. "We must be getting closer to the top; it's colder here." Just as she said it, Natsu's eyes widened and grabbed Lucy's wrist.

"Nats-" Lucy started, and then she felt it. One of her feet had no more ground to stand on. Her breath caught in her throat at the feeling, but it only lasted a second, as Natsu yanked her towards him and away from the danger. Pulled so forcefully into Natsu, he was caught by surprise and fell over onto his back on the ground with Lucy on top of him, her legs straddling his. Their faces were mere inches apart, their breath fanned each other, and neither one could help but flick their eyes down at the other's lips. Lucy stared into Natsu's hazel eyes while he stared into her chocolate-brown ones. Both sets of eyes were wide and unreadable, as their owners themselves didn't know what they were thinking.

 _Why is my heart beating so fast!?_ It was the last thought they each had before waking up. They both darted up from where they had slept.

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you for reading, favoriting, and following!**

 **And a special thanks to MasterGildarts, Larissa, and GRUgrace for reviewing!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I suppose I should post another chapter of this.**

* * *

"Did she take the bait?" A women asked a man as he arrived back to their camp from his espionage assignment.

"Yes. The mighty Titania Knight has left to chase Erigor and his team. She's even on her way to the Kasain castle right now to take Salamander and possibly a few others," the man replied.

"I'm still not so sure getting Titania out of the picture will really help us."

"Just listen to the general. Even just getting her out of the way will help us succeed in our mission immensely."

"I guess, but there is still the princess knight."

The other person laughed. "You mean the She-Devil?" he laughed again."Yes, she might still have been an issue, but Hades informed us that she hasn't fought in a long time, remember? Not since she and her siblings attacked the group from the reconnaissance mission from two years back."

"There've been whispers of her gaining her fighting spirit again, however."

The man shrugged. "Still though, they would never be able to get to the manor in time to stop us. That's why we had to distract Titania, so that she wouldn't alert anyone of our presence. And don't forget about the stuff that fairy gave Erigor's team! We should be able to capture Titania's team with it! And you know General Milkovich will be pleased with that, considering how desperate she is for the Kooran prince's whereabouts!"

"I'm still not sure about trusting the fairy. He has to have some ulterior motive to helping Baram."

"He's helped Baram before, so I've heard. He claimed to be a fairy of death, and so just wants to see unrelenting chaos. And plus, Hades and the generals trusts him, so why shouldn't we?"

The woman sighed. "...I guess."

"Do you not trust in Hades? He is the one who saw your potential and saved your life." The woman was silent, and the man sighed. They were told to report any kind of treason, and not trusting their leaders' decisions fell under that category. Usually he would report it without hesitating, but he could understand where she was coming from. Not to mention the fact that he was completely infatuated with her. He sighed again and spoke. "Alright now, let's go over the mission once more. Are you listening over there?" The speaker received a grunt of acknowledgment from the third member of their group.

"Do we really have to go over it again? We just have to go kill some important noble. It's not that hard," the black haired man queried snarkily.

"Okay, but do you remember where we're going? And who we're supposed to kill?"

"Yeah yeah, we're supposed to go to that place to the north and get the daughter so her dad will talk." The other male rolled his eyes. It was obvious his dark-haired companion had forgotten who the girl was exactly, but it didn't matter. As long as they got someone to talk, their mission would be successful.

 **oOo**

Lucy threw her covers off and went to stand from her bed.

"Ow!" She yelped, when she shifted to let her feet support her weight. "Why do my feet hurt so badly!?" She groaned at the pain and walked into her dressing room, where Virgo had laid out her outfit of the day. Lucy took one look at the shoes, a pair of strappy wedges, and threw them back in her closet. "No. I am not wearing those after spending the night mountain climbing." Lucy walked into her closet and, first, fixed the pair she'd just thrown in, and second, found a pair of comfortable satin slippers.

Her mind was racing as it went through everything that had happened in the dream.

 **oOo**

Natsu's chest heaved the moment he woke up. He held his hands to his cheeks, wondering why they felt so hot. Erza and Gray had both been awake when the Prince had darted up, and Gray started laughing at him because of his odd expression, although he shut up soon enough with a glare from Erza.

"Bad dream?" Erza asked, concerned.

Natsu shook his head. "Good... Very good dream," he said as memories of Lucy flashed through his brain. He felt as if her breath was still fanning his face. He wanted to feel it again.

 _I want to feel her lips again._ a stray thought forced its way through, in a voice that was and wasn't his at the same time.

 _Again? I've never felt Lucy's lips!_

 _But I have._ The words came from the first voice again.

As he thought about it, he swore he could feel phantom lips tracing across his skin and whispered affections that he couldn't make out.

Natsu groaned and rubbed his forehead. Too much thinking. He'd finish figuring this out later.

Erza and Gray shared a confused look as they watched the pink-haired man fret over something. "Do you... Want to talk about it?" Erza asked. Natsu shook his head. He didn't need to tell them about Lucy, and he definitely didn't need to hear Gray's teasing. He stood from the bed. "Man, my feet are killing me!"

"Why? You haven't even been on them! Wimp," Gray teased.

"Aw, shut up!"

"Make me!"

Natsu grabbed his sword from the sheath resting against the wall. "I will!"

"Boys..." Erza glared menacingly and the aforementioned boys instantly stopped their bickering. Natsu returned his sword to its sheath.

"We've gotta get going. You guys go find some breakfast -normal breakfast, mind you, not that Eggs Benedict crap you got last time- and I'll go start getting Happy and the other horses ready," Natsu said. Erza and Gray nodded their agreement to his plan and went to find food they could eat on the road.

Natsu put his belt and sheath around his waist, then went to the inn's stables, where their horses had been housed for the night. Starting with Happy first, Natsu began putting the saddles and bridles on them so they could leave. Happy could tell that something was bugging his owner and gave him a look while nuzzling into the pink-haired boy's neck. The two had a special connection. Natsu had found Happy, just a foal then, wandering the castle grounds when he himself had been merely a child. The boy had taken care of the horse ever since, and now Happy was the only horse Natsu could manage to ride without triggering a terrible motion sickness.

Natsu sighed, still not able to forget the feeling of Lucy's breath over him. And who'd been that voice? _Hello?_ He thought, trying to direct it to wherever the other voice had come from. No answer, of course. It was just his crazy imagination, right?

"I think her weirdness is rubbing off on me." Natsu closed his eyes and rested his head on the horses back. "Lucy..."

"Who's Lucy?" Gray asked as he wandered into the stable with a bag of fruit in his arms. Dumping it's contents into a saddle bag, Gray urged Natsu on more. "Hmm?"

Natsu blushed a little and sat up to finish buckling Happy's gear. "Never mind!" He changed the subject. "Where's Erza?"

"She's wrangling a bakery of all their strawberry croissants," Gray replied, although he wouldn't let Natsu get away so easy. Seeing Natsu try to avoid the topic of 'Lucy' just made Gray more curious. "So, who's Lucy?"

"She's nobody!"

Gray laughed. "With that reaction, yeah right! Who is she?" Natsu still didn't answer. "Is that why you've been so weird lately? Did the mighty Salamander fall for someone?"

"No!"

Gray smirked knowingly. "Where'd you even meet her? I don't remember any 'Lucy' working at the castle..." He thought back to when they'd been out recently and couldn't recall any time that Natsu would've been with a girl. He snickered. "I bet that's what your dream was about! You were probably dreaming about taking the dear lady's innocence! How scandalous!" Gray teased, using an exaggerated high-society voice as he held a hand to his chest in mock shock.

Natsu blushed fiercely, his cheeks hotter than the lit fireplace that had sat in the entrance hall of the inn. "I was not dreaming about that." Gray laughed and winked suggestively, although he trusted that Natsu was telling the truth for that last part. It was the only thing the prince had said in the last couple of minutes that Gray actually believed. He was about to tease some more, but Erza came in a few moments later with several boxes of, most likely, the strawberry cream croissants Gray had mentioned.

"Are we ready to go?" she asked while dumping her treats in a saddle bag she had had specially made for the delicacies. "We need to get on the road to Onibas." Natsu and Gray nodded seriously and finished up. A few minutes later, they were on the road again.

 **oOo**

"Lucy!" The said woman had just entered the library when she'd heard the whispered call. Looking to the source, Lucy saw Levy speed-walking her way towards Lucy. The bluenette had a pile of books in her arms. A glance at the titles told Lucy that she was reading about dreams. Perfect. She had to tell Levy about the strange conversations she'd been hearing. "So..."

"Yes, I did meet Natsu once again," Lucy told her, anticipating the question. "But there's something else involving him, I think, that you should know about..."

Levy cocked her head to the side as the two sat down at a table. "Something else? What kind of thing does this entail?" The blunette lips quirked into a sly smile. "Are you realizing your undying love for him?" she asked, teasingly. "Was my soulmate theory really true?" Levy laughed as Lucy grew stiff and her cheeks tinged pink. She suddenly remembered how their dream had ended and how her pondering this morning had went. She'd determined that she did, in fact, maybe have the smallest, _slightest,_ _teensy-weensiest_ crush on the knight. It had come so quickly, but she and Natsu already felt like best friends and like they had known each other for years and years! She'd wanted him to kiss her because of that _teensy-tiny_ crush she had!

"Uh... I don't- He- We- Maybe I-" Lucy struggled to find the words she wanted to say, causing Levy to laugh again, although she quickly shut her loud mouth when the bookkeeper peeked out from one of the shelves with a 'shush!'. The girls both apologized and lowered their voices, also realizing this might not be a topic they would want anyone eavesdropping on. "Okay, I do think I _might_ want him in a romantic way, but don't judge me for it! We've gotten so close so quickly and I just feel like I know him so well, like we've been best friends since I was, I don't know, of my fourteenth year or something! And I just know he isn't anyone bad! I've gotten pretty good at picking out the fake charmers, you know..."

"I'm not judging," Levy reassured. "I think it's sweet. But please do be careful. You haven't even met the man outside of your dreams."

"Yes, I know," Lucy nodded. "But I would very much like that to change."

"Besides your infatuation with him, you had something to tell me? Or was that it?"

Lucy shook her head. "No, no, it's something else entirely. See... Yesterday and last night in the dream, I've been hearing these weird voices in my head... Not in a crazy way, though! It's like, conversations between Natsu and I, except they're words that we've never exchanged but I know that I didn't make them up!"

"Conversations that you don't remember happening..."

"Yes, but they _could_ have happened. We say stuff that I can definitely see Natsu and I saying to each other, for the most part."

"Like..." Levy urged, wanting examples.

"Like..." Lucy thought back. "Like there was one where I was just thinking about what Natsu would do at the manor, and then suddenly I heard him teasing me for being scared and then me yelling at him for worrying me... There was one where I was yelling at him for not letting me bandage him after getting wounded from training... One where Natsu was shouting at me to watch him do something... Oh yeah, and there was another where Natsu was telling me about this nickname he gave me and then a few seconds later, he said the exact same words I'd just heard in my head!"

"Aww, he gave you a nickname? How cute, Lu! What is it?"

"Luce, but would you please stay focused?" Lucy said as she flushed again.

"Yes, yes..." _So they're almost like memories that never happened._ "Do you know if the Salamander-"

"Levy, he has a name! Natsu!" Lucy urged her friend to correct herself.

Levy snickered. "Okay, fine. Natsu. I swear I've heard that name somewhere..."

"I was thinking about that, too, and I think I've heard Mira and some of the others mention a 'Natsu'. Erza knows him, so it's probably the same one."

"Erza and Mira?" Levy's eyes widened and she gasped as it finally dawned on her how she knew the name 'Natsu'. It had been years and years since she'd been at the Fioran palace and it'd been so long since she'd seen him last! They'd been kids! How the hell had she forgotten him, though!? Levy just laughed and facepalmed at her apparently bad memory. She'd never necessarily been good friends with the Kasain prince Natsu, but they'd been friendly enough! _Damn, I'm stupid._

"What?" Lucy asked.

"Oh nothing... I don't need to get into it right now. I'm sure you'll find out soon enough, anyway," she said with a snicker. "Do you know if _Natsu_ has gotten any of these?" Lucy shook her head, indicating that she did not. _Since Lucy is, I'm sure he's been getting these memories, too..._ Levy thought for a bit, trying to form some hypothesis in her head. _You know, maybe I'm not so far off with the soulmate idea..._

"Levy? Any ideas?" Lucy asked, putting a pause on Levy's thoughts.

"No, I don't. But I'll keep that in mind as I research." Levy answered before opening up one of her books. "And you should know that Virgo knows."

"What!?"

Levy snickered. "She noticed that you've seemed a bit distracted the last few days and dragged it out of me." Lucy groaned. She hadn't wanted a lot of people to know and be asking questions. Then again, Virgo was just one more person, one of her most trusted friends, and knew when to not gossip. Surely her maid would be able to figure out that this was not a thing to chatter about. "I did some research. I can't find any undeniable facts regarding your situation with Natsu. There aren't any completely truthful records of similar situations, but I did find some old legends about a fairy of life that liked to use dreams in her enchantments, so perhaps there's something there? They are just fairy tales, but it's possible somebody experienced this and explained it using the fairy."

"Seems plausible. What were some of the legends?"

Levy put on a sly grin and cheeky tone. "Well, she was allegedly quite the advocate for romance and love..."

Lucy's face flushed pinker than Natsu's hair.

 **oOo**

"Grr... Let us out!" Natsu shouted as he gripped the bars of the cell he was currently trapped in.

"Do you really think anyone's gonna let us out!? By God's hands, shut the fuck up, Natsu!" he heard from the cell to the left that was separated by a solid concrete wall.

"Gray, language," Natsu heard Erza mutter quietly from the right-hand cell. He groaned again.

"Damnit, they took the Fire Dragon! How the hell did this even happen!?" Natsu shouted, attempting to shake his door open again. "I was winning that damn fight!"

"Same! The last thing I remember is that guy with the lance throwing that black sand in my eyes, and then I was in here!" Gray was obviously annoyed at the predicament and Natsu growled that he had had the same experience.

"They could be out there, hurting innocent people! And what about Happy? Our horses? Are they safe!?" Natsu shouted as he shook at the bars again.

"I don't know, and you think I don't realize that!?"

"Why don't you use your curse-thing!?"

"Because that wouldn't help us get out of the cells! I'll use the magic crap when we're fighting whoever runs this place, but it's not gonna help us when we're trapped like this!" Then they realized that Erza was being strange. In that she wasn't yelling at them.

"Erza?" Gray questioned. When she didn't answer, Natsu tried calling her name again, but louder.

"Huh?"

"What's wrong?"

She grumbled. "Nothing. I'm just... Trying to figure out a way to get out." The boys both shrugged and dismissed it, each going back to their tasks; one, to keep banging on the iron bars, and the other, to sit back and try not to get a headache from his annoying prince's loudness. As they did that, Erza went back to what she'd actually been doing: analyzing her last memories.

She'd been fighting with the scythe-wielding one. Erigor, his name had been, when she'd noticed that he held a handful of something off to the side and out of the way. She had kept one eye on it the entire fight and noticed when that arm had shifted into a motion to throw. Erza had been expecting it and dodged from his arm's line of fire before he'd had a chance to react. The black sand, the stuff from his hand, had landed in a scattered mess on the ground.

Erigor had laughed. "You're good." She'd expected some sort of taunt, a tease, but not what came out of his mouth next. "General Fernandes would be pleased to hear it." Her grip on her Heaven's Wings hadn't slackened, but her eyes had widened and focused on nothing in particular, meaning she had forgotten to keep an eye on her enemy in her surprise.

"Fernandes?" she'd questioned harshly. She wasn't expecting an answer, but she'd gotten one anyways.

"Why, everyone knows of General Jellal Fernandes, one of the most important leaders in Baram." Erigor had laughed again, seeing that Erza was so unresponsive. Erza hadn't been able to believe what she'd been hearing. She knew that Jellal hadn't been able to escape. It was one of the reasons she fought so hard. She'd wanted to help in the liberation, in the rescue. She'd wanted Baram destroyed for everyone they'd hurt, which included Jellal and so many other friends from her childhood.

And in that battle, to have found out that Jellal was one of the most prolific leaders of the country they'd cursed with their entire beings? The country they swore they'd escape from? The country they'd sworn to take down together? No, she couldn't believe it.

"You're lying," she had said through gritted teeth as she trained her eyes and adjusted her stance to him again.

"Oh, Titania, I wish I was. But no, the general is who ordered this mission. It was his idea to distract you while Baram's true first move is carried out."

Erza had lost concentration again. She was scolding herself now, as she thought back, for losing it so easily, but Jellal had sent men into Kasai with the intention to kill. What had happened to him!? No, this couldn't be Jellal! And wait, what was that he said!?

"Distrac-" and then Erigor had thrown a new handful of black sand in her face, knocking her out instantaneously before she could finish her thought.

Erza didn't understand why Baram hadn't just killed she and the boys after knocking them out. Someone had injured her, as she had woken up to find bleeding slices across one of her arms and her legs. Most of the cuts were benign, but the more serious ones she'd wrapped in makeshift bandages from her skirt. They would heal quick enough and wouldn't be a problem. Did they have some ulterior motive? Were they so conceited to think that simply capturing them would do? _Then again, after that pitiful fight, perhaps they were correct in thinking that._ Erza couldn't believe she'd been so easily distracted. And now she was trapped in a jail cell while Baram wreaked who knows what havoc on Fiore or Kasai or _both_. She needed to get out and stop whatever malicious plot they had.

But how? Obviously rattling the cage doors and causing a ruckus wasn't going to do anything, but neither would just sitting there, as it seemed like Gray was doing.

And then Erza heard another voice in the jail besides Natsu's shouting.

"Natsu?" The voice was feminine and familiar. She couldn't place the voice with a name or a face, though. Her memories failed her.

Natsu was silent for a moment. Erza heard metal scrape as he, assumedly, let go of the bars.

"Luce?"

* * *

 **A/N: Ooh, we're getting into the meat of the story! Let me know what you think so far!**

 **Thank you for reading, following, and favoriting!**

 **And a special thank you to Minsie, MissVarta, and MasterGildarts for reviewing!**


	7. Chapter 7

Lucy groaned at the stack of documents she would need to read through. She didn't mind reading, and in fact adored reading a good story, but political pages and records were another thing entirely, and sure to be boring.

In fact, as she made herself comfortable in the cushioned library chair that she always did her reading in, she was bored into sleep.

When Lucy realized she was falling asleep, she wondered if she would see Natsu and felt a strange warm feeling in her chest, similar to the one she'd felt at the end of their last dream. It was sometime in the afternoon, so he definitely wouldn't be going to bed anytime soon, and part of her doubted he ever took naps.

The fog around her dissipated as the world took shape. The first thing she noticed was... the wall of a grimy room. Very grimy, with dirt all over the walls and floor. She looked around. She seemed to be in a long hallway, with torches lighting it. Not knowing which way to go or what else to do, Lucy listened to her surroundings. She could hear yelling. What was being yelled was incoherent, but she'd recognize that voice anywhere. "Natsu!" She cried softly as she headed in that direction. But... Just how did Natsu end up taking a nap at the exact same time as her? And why was he yelling?

These were all questions she could probably get answered by simply talking to Natsu, so she went a little faster. She heard Natsu stop his loudness at the sound of her footsteps and soon after, he said, "Guys, I think someone's coming!"

She arrived at the end of the hall to see...

Jail cells.

One of which housed Natsu. There were people in the two beside him, but neither of them were near the front of their cell or facing towards her, so she didn't pay attention to them.

His eyes were wide. "Luce?" He questioned.

"Uh, yeah? Why are you so confused? Did you not expect to see me when you took a nap? Why are you in a jail cell?"

"But I... I didn't take a nap! I don't think so, anyways! Why are you-!"

"Natsu, who the hell are you talking to? And why are you talking about naps?" Gray asked. He had been drowning the sound of Natsu's voice out, so it had taken awhile to notice that he wasn't yelling. All he'd really heard was Natsu's last remark.

"Who's that?" Gray heard a female voice that wasn't Erza ask. Was this the Lucy chick? He scrambled to the wall of bars on his cell and his jaw dropped. Not only was Natsu actually talking to a girl, he was talking to a fucking gorgeous one!

"Lucy!?" Erza shouted as she looked out of her cell. No wonder she hadn't realized it before! This girl was so out of context! Why was Lucy in the jail of some unknown region when she was so close in line to Fiore's throne? And why did she and Natsu seem to know each other!? As far as she knew, they had never met!

"Erza!?" Lucy figured out immediately after hearing the voice and seeing the speaker's bright red hair. Lucy turned to Gray. "Does that mean that you're Gray? Natsu mentioned you! You're the... Ahem, 'stupid stripper'," she said with a giggle.

"Really!? That's what you told her!? That I strip!?"

"It's not like I'm wrong! You're probably not even wearing a shirt now!" Lucy could confirm Natsu's guess. Lucy looked to the pink-haired boy again, and then her eyes widened with worry.

"Natsu, you're bleeding!"

"Huh?" Lucy, from between the bars, grabbed his arm, where there were long cuts that she hadn't noticed before painting it red. "Oh look at that, I am!" Lucy started ripping at the long skirt of her dress. "Uh, what are you doing?"

"What do you think I'm doing!? I'm going to bandage you!"

 _"You have got to stop leaving your injuries to bleed like this!"_

They both heard the words this time, in Lucy's voice. Hearing those random sentences in their own voices was still just as confusing, but neither worried about it right now. They had more important things to worry about, like the fact that Natsu and his comrades were imprisoned.

When Natsu rolled his eyes, Lucy raised her eyebrows at him in a way that said, 'you had better let me do this or I swear to God I'll cut your arm off'. Natsu smiled at the look on her face and relented, sticking his arm back through the bars as Lucy tied cloth around it. Gray couldn't believe what he was watching. Usually when Natsu had simple cuts like these that wouldn't really cause much harm, he wouldn't let anyone tend to them, saying that it was a "waste of time" and he "heals fast anyways," but Lucy had gotten him to let her bandage them with barely any resistance. He was sure of what he'd joked about in the stable earlier: his prince had fallen for someone, or was at least on the way to falling. "Now," Lucy started when she was finished, "Why the heck are you bleeding!?"

Erza asked the question that everyone was thinking. "I think the better question is, how did you get here?"

"How I always get here?" She answered confusedly.

"Wait, are you sleeping right now?" Natsu asked as he started to fit the puzzle pieces together. Gray and Erza would've shared an unsure look if they could see each other.

"Yeah, I fell asleep while reading something about agriculture. Aren't you?"

"No, I just said I wasn't! Erza and Gray sure as hell wouldn't be in any of my dreams. Unless I'm having a nightmare, but I don't think you'd be in a nightmare." Lucy hadn't paid attention to the offhanded remark, but Gray just took it as more evidence of his speculations. Not before he rolled his eyes at Natsu's comment about himself and Erza, though.

Lucy looked positively puzzled. "So then, how am I here?" She pondered for a bit, and then her facial features contorted into annoyance. "And why the hell are you in jail!?" The girl berated herself for a moment at the cursing, but then she decided that she liked it. It was somewhat liberating, especially since she knew her father would not approve. In his manor, she'd try to stay within his boundaries, but this wasn't his house and she wasn't under his roof. "What did you do!? And Erza, I'm surprised at you especially! I don't really know you, Gray, so I can't comment on you, but what happened!?"

Natsu sighed with a grumpy look on his face and a hand scratching his neck nervously. Gray didn't seem like he would give up an answer anytime soon, either. Finally, Erza offered up some answers.

"It's not what you may think. We did not break any laws. It actually involves Baram." Lucy gave the same sucked-in breath that everyone in their kingdoms gave at the opposing country's name. She also clenched her teeth. For some reason, Lucy felt an intense hatred for Baram that she hadn't felt before. She couldn't pinpoint exactly what the rage was over, but she knew it was very, very real. Why did she suddenly hate Baram more than anything else in the entire realm of existence!?

As Lucy pondered and attempted to calm down, she said through her gritted teeth, "Baram has decided to strike again? That's not good."

Erza shook her head. "I'd been trailing them and found out that they were going to Onibas, a town in Kasai."

"So we were gonna beat 'em up!" Natsu offered.

"And you weren't able t-" Lucy started.

"Aw hell no! I could've beat up all of them with a hand tied behind my back!"

Gray could see that Lucy didn't understand, so he explained. "The Baram team was playing dirty. They had some sort of black dust that they used to knock us out. Next thing we know is that we're locked in jail who knows where."

"Which pretty much brings us to now." Erza finished. She was still curious about how Lucy had ended up here, but decided that there were more important things to worry about at the moment. Gray figured that Erza would be thinking along those lines, and Natsu wouldn't be thinking at all.

"So you need to escape," Lucy stated, not speaking to anyone in particular. She thought for a second, looking around the room, then looking down the hallway. Casting her gaze back on Natsu, she continued, "I'll be right back."

"Lucy?" She started towards the hall. "Lucy, what are you doing!?"

She turned back to him and smiled. "Don't worry. I'll find the keys." And then she was sprinting, Natsu reaching for her but not able to grab her because of the bars restraining him.

 _"Hey, don't worry. Have I ever been one to lose?"_

They both heard Natsu's voice within their minds, and for some reason, they both felt immense sadness at the words. But they couldn't focus on these phantom conversations. Lucy had a job to get the keys and Natsu had a job to convince her not to run into danger.

"Lucyyyyy! It's dangerous!" he whined after her. When she didn't respond, he groaned and slumped against the bars that kept him from making sure Lucy stayed safe.

"Natsu, Lucy's a smart girl. She'll be careful," Erza reassured. "And it's not like we have another option; we have no resources for escape with us."

Natsu sighed. "I know that, but I'm worried for her! What if she gets attacked!? She doesn't have or know how to use any weapons!"

"Yes, I do wish she had some training in that field." Erza sighed, knowing he was right to be worried for a situation like that. "But it makes sense. Physical training isn't part of her agenda. She's being taught in more diplomatic areas than swordsplay, being a lady who may take control of Fiore."

"WHAT!?"

"What do you mean, 'what'? The Heartfilias are next in line to Fiore's throne after the Dreyars," Erza replied simply, not realizing that Natsu had no clue what Lucy's last name was.

"But what does that have to do with Lucy!?"

Gray groaned at Natsu's inability to make connections. "It means your girlfriend is the Heartfilia heir, dingus."

"Lucy's a noble!? And could someday be a queen!?" Natsu shouted. "And she's not my girlfriend!" Gray smirked at that.

"Probably not, honestly, considering Laxus and Mira's union. I'm sure the announcement of an heir to the throne will be coming soon enough. She's also fourth in line, after Makarov, Laxus and Mira, and her father." Erza answered Natsu.

"Oh..." Natsu thought for a second. "Why haven't I met her before now? Seems a bit odd, if she's this important noble, and I'm at the Fioran castle all the time."

"She doesn't visit outside of her manor. Mira and I only know her because we've had to visit her father upon occasion. Her father is the one that visits the castle for public affairs and whatnot."

"Who's her dad?"

"You remember, Jude Heartfilia? He had the slicked hair and what you described as a 'pervo mustache'? No one really liked him? He made fun of your hair?"

"Oh yeah, that asshole? That's her dad? Jeez, how'd she turn out so nice?" Natsu wondered aloud.

Gray laughed. "Hey, you're the one that's gonna have to deal with him as an in-law." Ignoring Natsu's cry of indignance, Gray continued, "Are you gonna tell us why you know that chick, anyways? And why you didn't know who she was?" Gray's curious side was getting impatient.

"I did know - do know - who she was! Er, is! She's Lucy!" Natsu groaned at the confusing way he'd worded his sentence.

"Whatever, just tell us where you guys met!"

Natsu sighed, knowing what kind of reaction he would get from Gray. "In my dreams."

Gray snorted. "What's with the cheesy line?"

"I'm serious! We literally met in our dreams! When I'm sleeping, she's there in my dreams!"

"Is that why you two mentioned naps while you spoke?" Erza questioned. Natsu confirmed it. This situation seemed... Strange. Two people meeting in dreamland? "How long has this been going on?"

"It started a few days ago." Gray was satisfied to know why Natsu had acted weirdly at some points in the last couple of days. The small smiles, his odd reaction to being called an idiot, his distractedness... "I don't even know why," Natsu continued. "I just ended up in some forest in my dream, and she was there. She's been there every time I've fallen asleep since then. And now she's apparently showing up when I'm awake," he joked, although it had a certain worried undertone.

"And you have no idea how this started?" Erza received a confirming hum from Natsu. "This is certainly interesting. I hope the answer reveals itself in time." They spent awhile in silence. Every time they heard a distant noise, however, Erza and Gray could almost feel Natsu tense up. They knew how worried he was for the nearly defenseless girl. She was smart and resourceful, but if she were to be cornered... The best case scenario was that they'd be meeting her again in the cells, just without the key she had vowed to find.

 **oOo**

Lucy couldn't help but feel nervous as she continued down the hallway that was sure to lead into danger. In her Bora dream, nothing had really held consequences; it was just a dream. But this? This was Natsu's waking world. This was an event that was truly happening in the conscious realm. One mess-up, and she may fail in getting Natsu, Erza, and Gray out. Lucy sighed heavily. _No use thinking about it like that. That'll just work me up_.

As she walked, she noticed that the hallway had other corridors leading from it. A quick glance in one had her assuming that they each lead to a room quite like the one Natsu and them were in.

When she arrived at the other end of the hallway, she ducked into one of the aforementioned corridors to observe the end of the hallway and saw that there was a guard unsurprisingly posted there.

Except he was passed out. From drinking, Lucy could presume, smelling the strong scent of ale and seeing a mug in the guard's hand that had spilled its contents on the floor and was threatening to fall itself. But did this guard have the keys? Lucy tentatively walked out from her hiding place. She glanced around the small room. On the far wall was an iron door that almost certainly led to more of this fortress and next to it was a banner featuring the symbol of Baram, and seeing nothing else other than those, a table, barrels, and more dirty mugs, Lucy tiptoed to the guard for closer observation. The man didn't seem like he was anything special, merely a grunt of Baram. He wore simple chain mail, and a tunic overtop, so nothing unusual. The tunic also bore the cursed-upon symbol of Baram, which resembled a pair of hammers. That meant that after being knocked out, Natsu, Erza, and Gray had been transported to a base in Baram. Lucy quietly sucked in a breath. The sight festered anger and sadness within her, but her confusion over the intensity of those feelings wasn't the only problem. They may be able to get out of the cells, but getting out of Baram would be a whole different issue entirely. She focused her attention back on the guard. Her eyes trailing over him, they landed on his belt and she happily sighed, because there was the key ring.

Before Lucy could do anything about it, though, she heard the latch from the opposite side of the door opening. Not wasting any time, Lucy darted quickly and quietly back into where she'd stayed hidden to observe. She cursed in her head, knowing that it would be indefinitely harder to gain access to the key after this. A few seconds later, someone came into the room. Lucy didn't risk trying to watch, but she listened carefully.

The newcomer scoffed. "You really shouldn't be asleep." A couple of slaps resounded, and then a surprised and groggy yelp came from the guard. "You're guarding a few of the strongest knights from the Fairy Kingdoms." Noting the man's tone as he said that, Lucy guessed that 'Fairy Kingdoms' was a diminutive for Kasai and Fiore. "I could have your head for that."

"'S all right, Lord Azuma! How would they even escape? No one's ever gotten outta this jail!"

"That's because we barely use it. We just needed someplace close to the border. It was your orders to stay at this post and make sure nothing happened. If they were to escape... We probably don't have enough soldiers stationed here to stop them from leaving. They need to be here for when General Milkovich arrives."

"What'd she need 'em for again?"

"Information, remember? We still haven't figured out what happened to the Celestial and Kooran heirs, and the general is certain that they're being hidden by the Fairy Kingdoms. We don't know who the dark-haired knight is, but Scarlet and Salamander are both highly trusted by the royal families and will probably know their secrets." What did this 'Azuma' person mean by 'heirs'? The royal family? Were the princes or princesses of Koori and Celestia still alive?

"So, what're ya here for?"

"Checking up. Making sure everything's proper, like you haven't lost the key or anything."

"'Ey! I have the key right here!" Lucy heard a snap and then a jangling of a key on a keyring. Apparently the guard had removed the keyring from his belt. Lucy continued to listen, hoping she wouldn't hear the snap of it being attached back on his belt, but luckily, she heard a dulled and abrupt clang, probably from the key being set on the table.

"I shall take my leave, then. Don't fall asleep." She heard retreating footsteps, the latch open on the door, and then another slam as it shut behind Azuma. The guard sighed.

"Man, I need more beer." Lucy peeked around the corner and saw that the guard's back was to her as he found a mug and went to a barrel of ale. Lucy looked to where the key was. If she ran, she could probably grab it before he turned around again, but he would surely see her retreating. But this was her only chance. She had to take it, because who knew when a safer opportunity would arise?

Lucy darted from her hiding spot and towards the table. Just as she grabbed the ring, the guard yelled out a 'hey!' Without bothering to look back, Lucy started running back to the hallway, the keyring clutched in her hand. Her eyes passed over the chair that the guard had been sleeping in and noticed a sword leaning against it. As she ran past, Lucy grabbed the hilt. The sword came along easily and was probably of extremely poor quality, but she knew that the escapees would need a weapon.

Behind her, Lucy heard the man yelp and fall with a clatter, earning Lucy even more time. She found that it was quite awkward, running while holding a sword. She looped the keyring around the hilt and held the sword by the blade under her armpit, the other hand gripping the aforementioned hilt as she desperately prayed that the blade wouldn't cut her.

"Come back here! Who are you!?" The guard desperately cried. Lucy didn't let it distract her as she ran, trying to keep her long skirt hiked up so it wouldn't trip her. Lucy was faster than the guard, it seemed, as his yells were becoming slightly more distant. _Why does this hallway seem so long now!? It feels as if I've been running forever!_

"Lucy!?" She heard Natsu shout worriedly.

"Natsu!" Lucy yelled back. Within the next second, Lucy was running into the cell room. Erza and Gray shouted congratulations, but she didn't notice as she dropped the sword by Natsu's cell door and immediately scrambled with the key, sticking it into the door and turning it before anyone could say "Fairy Tail". Natsu swung the door open and took Lucy into his arms, surprising her. She didn't take any time to appreciate the hug however, and pushed him away, shoving the sword towards him. "Guard..." she started, out of breath. "Following me..." Natsu nodded.

"Just get Erza and Gray out while I take care of this guy!"

Natsu ran towards the guard who was just arriving and brandished the stolen sword. "Ah! Who is that!? I thought we only captured three people!"

Natsu growled. "That's none of your business!" The guard knew that he was out rivaled and turned to retreat and find his allies, but the freshly released Erza and Gray blocked his exit. The guard stepped back, away from the dangerous-looking duo, and bumped into Natsu, who smirked at him before shoving him into one of the empty cells. Lucy came up with the key, and he was locked in. The guard crumpled, looking unnerved, and everyone released a sigh. They all gave each other a nod and headed out of the room.

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you for reading, favoriting, and following!**

 **And a special thank you to Moonraay, MasterGildarts, 123, Larissa, XxCelestialPrincessxX, and Aanotherworldaway for reviewing!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I'm curious to know who you guys think the people with undisclosed names are from a few chapters ago. They won't be showing up in this chapter yet!**

 **Also it worries me that I don't think I've finished another chapter since I've started posting this...**

 **It just came to my attention that I had need to mention this, too.** **I started writing this and developing the story for this before season eight of the anime came out, so none of the characters or anything from the Alvarez arc will appear.**

* * *

Erza and Gray ran ahead while Lucy and Natsu lagged behind. Lucy hadn't meant for the slight separation to happen, but she had noticed that Natsu was trying to hang back while glancing at her often, so Lucy took it as a hint that he wanted to talk to her.

"Natsu? What's the matter?"

"Listen, Lucy," he started, sounding unusually serious.

"Yeah?"

"I want to teach you how to use a sword." Lucy stopped walking, causing Natsu to as well.

"What? Why?"

"Because you don't know how to!"

"Well, yeah, but why do you want to teach me so badly now?"

"The whole time you were gone, I couldn't stop worrying about if something were to happen to you, like if you were caught, or even k-" Natsu gulped. He didn't even want to imagine her dead. "I want to teach you to defend yourself, because I don't know how I can always be around to keep you safe, so I want you to be able to when I can't, okay?"

Lucy nodded slowly, contemplating and taking in his words, not realizing that the brave, fearless Salamander had been more scared than she. "Yes," she finally said. "I should learn swordsplay." She looked up to his face and nodded more firmly, and with a smile. "I would be very happy if you taught me," she said, taking his hand and squeezing it.

As they sped up their walking to catch up with Erza and Gray, Natsu gave her a relieved smile that morphed into excitement at the prospect of teaching her how to do one of his favorite things. _What kind of sword will Lucy use?_ he wondered. His eyes raked over her, taking a look at her body shape to determine what she'd be best at using. _Probably a lighter sword. She doesn't have a whole lot of muscle to speak of. A rapier?_ He noticed certain... Centers of gravity on her, that is, her chest and her derrière. With a blush, he quickly looked away from her. _Nope, she wouldn't be nimble enough for a rapier_.

"Lucy, did you learn of anything before you retrieved the keys?" Erza asked, still furiously curious about when she'd heard Erigor spew something about Baram's "true first move".

"Yes. A man - Lord Azuma he was called, I think - spoke with the guard and mentioned that some general would be coming to get information out of you three. They're trying to find... I mean, I couldn't believe it! It's so-"

"Just spit it out!" Gray urged.

"Ah! Sorry," Lucy started again, flustered. "They're trying to find the heirs to Koori and Celestia."

"What!?" Three voices fiercely questioned.

"But everyone in the royal cities were killed!" Natsu shouted. "That's what the rumors were, anyways! How could there be any 'heirs'?"

"What's the point to even finding them, anyways? Just being from a royal family doesn't mean you have any power to bring back a fallen kingdom."

"Hope." Erza said in reply to Gray's comment. "The citizens that escaped from Koori and Celestia may have integrated into Fiore and Kasai, but there's no doubt that they'd be happy to see their kingdoms rise again. No one may talk of it, but I'm sure every former citizen has had the thought that their prince or princess may be alive and well. If Baram makes a public showing of these heirs' execution, they can purge that tiny bit of hope and make it seem all the more impossible to destroy them."

The group was unusually solemn after Erza's explanation. They stood quietly, perhaps in remembrance of the fallen, or perhaps, more probably, just because none of them knew how to react to the jarring realization.

Unsurprisingly, however, it was Natsu who broke the silence. "Well then, let's defeat Baram before they get the chance to do that." Everyone looked to one another and nodded, continuing down the nearly traversed hallway.

"So this was the guard's stationed room." Erza remarked to no one in particular once they reached the end.

"Yes, this is where I took the keys from."

Gray spoke next. "I assume that that door," Gray gestured to said door, "leads into more fortress and more soldiers, which means more danger." Lucy gulped, and Natsu could sense worry from the girl. He gripped the sword in his hand and put an arm around Lucy's soldiers, causing her to smile up at him. Gray waggled an eyebrow at Natsu in a teasing way, earning merely an eye roll in response. "At least we aren't totally unarmed. We've got that sword and my power, if we need it."

"Don't use it unless you have to, Gray," Erza told him, earning an 'obviously' look from him in response. "Hang back. I'm going to watch for a second." Erza told her team before reaching for the door's handle. She opened it just a crack and listened before peeking out, met with sparse conversations and meandering soldiers. The number of soldiers wasn't very high, but it was too high for one sword between the four of them, one of whom couldn't fight hand-to-hand at all. Not the time to strike. So she continued observing.

Lucy walked with Natsu close behind over to the Baramese banner that she'd noticed earlier. She couldn't help but shudder at the sight but also feel a seething hatred bubbling under her skin again. Looking to Natsu, she could see that he had a look of worry taking over his features as he stared at the flag. She still didn't know why Baram had started causing intense feelings of grief and anger over the past couple of days and Natsu didn't know why he felt such worry and nervousness, but neither cared at the time. In Lucy's moment of anger, she gripped the cloth and tore it from the wall, bunching up the flag and throwing it to the side like the garbage it was. As Natsu took her into his arms again and nuzzled into her shoulder almost as a sign of thankfulness, she couldn't help but feel sadness again, or perhaps more like pity, towards what was hidden underneath.

It was a symbol carved into the brick that looked like it had once been a cluster of stars but had been attempted to be scratched away. This jail had once been owned by Celestia. Lucy thought back to her servants and dear friends. This had been a part of their country, only to be defiled by Baram and it's horridness.

 _"Princess,"_ Lucy suddenly heard. She looked at her companions. She'd known right away that none of them had said it, but it seemed they hadn't _heard_ it either.

Natsu had noticed Lucy tense at something. "What's the matter?" he asked the girl at his arm.

Lucy shook her head, and then she heard the cry again. "Virgo?" she questioned quietly. Gray was giving her another confused look while Natsu gave her an equally confused but also concerned expression. "Natsu, I think Virgo is trying to wake me up," Lucy said, without thinking that Natsu had no clue who Virgo was. The call sounded again, this time more desperate, something unusual for her maid's solid and somewhat monotonous voice. "She... This sounds important, Natsu. I'd better go. See you later!" Lucy gave Natsu a quick hug before he could react, then closed her eyes, and in the next instant, she had vanished from Natsu's vision, the girl shaken from her slumber in Heartfilia Manor.

"Luce!" The way she had just suddenly left surprised him. He knew it meant that she had probably just woken up, but something still didn't sit right with him. It had seemed like that... Burger person was really frantic. Gray could tell Natsu was worried for the woman, and was about to make some joking remark about it, but decided that some form of comfort, rather than teasing, would probably be best in this situation.

"Relax, Natsu. I'm sure she just had to go do some heiress-y crap. She's fine."

"Yeah, yeah, shut up."

Erza groaned. She'd been trying to pick up snippets of conversation from the soldiers outside the door, perhaps hear something of Baram's plans, but all she'd heard were talks of beer, women, and whatever the heck these three behind her couldn't shut up long enough to chatter about. She whipped her head around. "Would you be quiet!?" she whisper-yelled. "I'm trying to- where's Lucy?"

"She had to wake up," Natsu answered her. "Something about Burger being worried." Erza was tempted to say something more, perhaps voicing her confusion as to why a burger was worried and why Natsu seemed as equally concerned as the sandwich, but then she heard a louder, more-important sounding voice from the cracked door.

"Lord Azuma?" A woman's voice called. Erza froze at the voice. It sounded familiar; from a time when it had been much higher pitched and younger-sounding. Was it really her?

"Commander Milkovich!" Footsteps. "You've arrived." Erza sucked in a breath. No, there was no mistaking her. That voice and that name... Why? Why was _she_ a commander of Baram, too!? First finding out about Jellal, and now _her_!? _Ultear_ was a commander, as well!? _When she wasn't at the camps I went through, I assumed... I never thought that meant she was being pampered and trained for leadership!_ Erza steadied her beating heart. She couldn't let this end the same way as her fight with Erigor. She had to get a hold of herself and not let her emotions get the better of her. "Yes. Which block are the prisoners in?"

"G. It's the one at the end."

"And they're still unconscious?"

"Last we checked on the three, yes. The Black Sleep worked marvelously. I'm glad. I'll admit, I was a bit wary about allowing the fairy's help again, but I think he has shown now to be worthy of my trust."

"Yes, yes, mine too. Refresh my memory: who are the captured?"

"We have the Salamander, a dark-haired knight who also wears the Fairy emblem, and the Titania."

Erza thought she could hear Ultear suck in a small breath and take a pause at the nickname. "Erza... I haven't seen her in years." Erza couldn't tell if the words held malignance or not. "I best go begin the interrogation," she said after a long silence. There were more footsteps, this time seemingly approaching the door. Before Erza could order the boys to do something, though, "Azuma" spoke again.

"Wait just a minute. Do you have a progress report on the Fiore mission?" All three of the eavesdroppers tensed and the boys crambled closer to the door to hear better.

A short, but malicious laugh came from Ultear. "Yes. Lockser and the others reportedly arrived at the Heartfilia manor not too long ago. The girl should be dead before too long."

"Good. Her father will open up if he knows where the heirs are."

Erza and Gray had had to each grab one of Natsu's arms and hold it tight to keep him from storming through the door in a blaze of fiery fury and swinging swords. Even now, he was struggling against their hold as they drug him away from where they'd be caught and into one of the cell blocks leading off the hallway.

"Let me go, damnit! Lucy! They're going to hurt h-" Erza and Gray slapped hands over his mouth as Milkovich and Azuma walked past where they now hid, headed towards where the three were still supposed to be captive. Natsu ripped the hands from off of him as he continued his muffled yelling. "Lucy's in danger! And they're the ones who want to hurt her! Let me go!"

"Natsu, do you really think that getting these guys will stop Lucy from getting hurt!? Those three she mentioned are already at her manor! All we can do for her right now is hope that she'll be protected!"

"That's not good enough! I have to find a way to get to her!"

"You're so dumb! We have to go, Natsu! We have less than a minute before those two find out we escaped! They're already suspicious because of the guard being gone! Come on!"

Erza and Gray grabbed his arms again and dragged him out, this time running right out the door. They were met with cries of surprise from the soldiers that happened to be right by the door, but Natsu quickly used his stolen sword to subdue them, which armed Erza and Gray with stolen swords as well. It didn't take very long for Azuma and Ultear to appear yelling in anger, and all three of the Fairy Tail knights found themselves in battle. Ultear had immediately pointed her wide eyes to Erza's, and the two briefly shared a moment where they stared at each other, as if they were each only confirming that which they already knew had to be true.

Their moment was interrupted by Azuma attacking Erza and Gray launching himself at Ultear. Erza had wished to confront Ultear, but it would apparently have to wait.

Gray fought valiantly, but Ultear was trained well for battle, a battle-hardened warrior that had earned her title. She knew what she was doing, and Gray was having a tough time keeping up. He felt his dark power creep up inside him as it was made apparent he'd need a bit of extra help. Gray let the strange magic surge through him, causing his black markings to appear up the side of him.

Ultear's eyes widened at the sight of the cursed marks and she took a few moments to apparently piece things together in her mind. What she was figuring out, Gray didn't know. "It's you!" she cried after not too long.

"Huh?" Gray voiced his confusion as he blocked her attack. This woman was obviously enraged at him, and Gray didn't have a clue why. "Who am I?" Milkovich didn't answer, instead swinging her sword at him in sporadic, wild attacks. Gray managed to block them all, but he'd had a few close calls. _Why is this woman so mad? And why does she look so similar to-_

"You-" she yelled, interrupting his thoughts. "Are the reason that my mother-" she screamed out an unintelligible cry.

"Your mother what? I don't even know your mother!" _Unless..._ She did look an awful lot like _her_ , but Milkovich wasn't _her_ last name.

"My mother was Ur Milkovich! And you're the reason she abandoned me!"

Now Gray was even more confused. Yes, this Milkovich woman looked just like Ur, his adoptive mother. But Milkovich had not been her last name. As far as he knew, Ur's name had been Ur Fullbuster. That's where Gray had gotten his last name. He didn't even know what his surname had been before Fullbuster.

"I don't know an Ur Milkovich! I only know an Ur Fullbuster!"

"You- idiot! She changed her name after she fled!"

"Fled!? Fled from what!?"

"I don't have to answer you!" The woman replied as she swung again.

"Why did you tell me anything, then!?"

Milkovich just screamed again, but she was starting to struggle against Gray's skill. While she'd been on the offensive before, her movements and stance had become defensive.

"What did Ur do, and how do you know I caused it!?"

"Because it was after she went for you that she left me and I never saw her again! She said she would come get me, but she never did! I thought that damned woman was my mother! I thought she would always love me, but it was all fake! She left me behind so she could save you, and then she never came back! But now I can kill you in front of all of your allies and everything will be fixed! You'll have died and I'll get my revenge! Everything my mother did will have been for naught, because even after she tried to hide you, even after she seemingly killed the general who went after you, we've found you!"

Gray groaned in frustration. "You're not making any sense!"

"It doesn't matter because soon you'll be dead!" She screamed again.

Azuma yelled over from where he was slowly losing his battle with Erza. "If he truly is the one, then might I remind you, Ultear, that you can't kill him here. There'd be no point to us finding him!"

Ultear growled in response, knowing that Azuma was correct. Her attacks and stance changed, and Gray could tell that her goal had changed from killing him to knocking him out.

And then Natsu came running over from out of nowhere and headbutted Gray's adversary. Ultear had been taken by surprise and fell over, but she was a quick reactor and was very soon standing up again and attacking the two knights opposing her.

As Natsu deflected an attack from Ultear, he spoke.

"Gray, I need you to knock me out!"

"What!?"

 **oOo**

The Fairy Tail knights separated and attacked. Natsu was stuck with the grunts of the fortress, which had only been six or so. All of whom were pretty weak. It shouldn't have taken Natsu as long as it did to defeat them, but he'd been distracted trying to figure out how to help Lucy.

His thoughts trailed to those last moments before she'd popped back to her bed, trying to decide how much danger she might be in.

And then it hit him. Lucy'd been asleep when she'd come and rescued them, so why couldn't he go to sleep so he could go save her?

One of the soldiers knicked him in the shoulder with their sword. It wasn't serious, but it was bleeding a tad. _Right,_ Natsu thought. _I probably can't just lay down and go to sleep at the moment._ And with a newfound reason to hurry up and take down these guys, Natsu had them subdued within a minute. Immediately, he laid down on the ground and closed his eyes.

A few seconds later, he popped them back open. He'd never be able to just fall asleep! Not when his adrenaline was pumping and there were fights happening around him! _How do I fall asleep and get to her!?_ Natsu looked around and saw the soldiers he'd rendered unconscious. _That's it! I just have to be knocked out!_ He knew it would work, after all, the first time he'd met Lucy was after he'd been knocked out in a fight with Gray!

Erza was always really good at knocking people unconscious. Maybe too good. He didn't want to be out for several days. Then again, that would be several days with Lucy! _That's not so bad!_ He noticed Gray was using his dark magic-curse thing, but he was also closer, so that's who Natsu darted towards. Head-butting the chick his attendant was fighting, Natsu quickly made his request.

"Gray, I need you to knock me out!"

* * *

 **Thank you for reading, favoriting, and following!**

 **A gracious thanks to lili3346, IndigoArcher89, Larissa, MasterGildarts, XxCelestialPrincessxX, and Kaggy-Higgs88 for reviewing!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Whoops, it's been a while since I posted, hasn't it? I still have a buffer of eight chapters, but I haven't really worked on writing more since I started posting this, whoops again ^_^'**

* * *

"Gray, I need you to knock me out!"

"What!?" Gray responded in confusion.

"I need to get to Lucy! Just knock me out!"

"Natsu, can't you see I'm in the middle of something!?" Gray yelled as he and Ultear's swords hit and rang out.

"Yeah, yeah, just hurry up and punch me in the head!"

Gray groaned. "Shut up! I'm not gonna force you to black out!"

"Oh come on, the one time I want you to, you aren't gonna!?"

"Like I said, kinda in the middle of a fight here!?"

"I know, just-" and then Natsu collapsed after a blunt hit to the head. It hadn't been Gray, but Ultear who'd fulfilled Natsu's request to render him unconscious.

"Hey!"

"He was annoying me," was all Ultear said before going back at Gray full force. Gray smirked. He hadn't wanted to knock Natsu out and leave him vulnerable in the middle of a fight, but now that he had been, whatever Baram was planning to do at Lucy's manor would fail. With Natsu there to protect his "girlfriend" (he snickered at the inner teasing of his prince), they would never succeed in hurting Lucy. Ultear Milkovich had just signed for the death of the mission.

 **oOo**

"Lucy!"

The girl darted up from the armchair she'd fallen asleep in, books flying off her lap and chest.

"Virgo, what's wrong!?"

"Princess, some Baramese soldiers have just arrived at the manor. They're looking for you." Lucy could guess why they were looking for her. "We need to get you hidden away. Taurus is fending them off as we speak." Lucy nodded. She hoped her bodyguard would be okay, however. He was strong, but he wasn't always the smartest or most strategic when it came to battling. Virgo grabbed Lucy's arm to lead her to safety.

"Where are you hiding me?"

"We're going to the servant's quarters. Gemini has an extra uniform for you to disguise yourself in, and she's willing to stand in for you if need be." Lucy groaned at that. In this case, 'stand in' could very well mean, 'get killed'. They kept hurrying, until Virgo cried out in painful surprise. Darting from the hall they had just passed was a blue-haired woman, and she'd immediately gone for Virgo with her scythe.

"Virgo!" Lucy cried. She looked to the new arrival. "Who are you!? Are you from Baram!?" Lucy asked frantically while trying to help her maid in some way.

"I am Juvia Lockser, and yes, I am from Baram. I've been sent to kill you, I'm sure you can imagine." The woman had a cold and lifeless gaze, but Lucy could sense that her heart wasn't as cold as her stature made it out to be.

"So why haven't you!? I was in your sights, so why didn't you just attack me right there and kill me instead of hurting Virgo!?"

"Because I don't want to kill you," Juvia answered, making Lucy's earlier guess seem to be true. "I don't see a need to kill you and shed blood, as you've done nothing wrong." _Well, I did release some of your prisoners,_ Lucy replied in her head. "Especially so since you may know the information we're looking for. As long as you and your father cooperate, then you should come out of this mostly unharmed."

"Wha-" Lucy began to ask, but Virgo put an arm out in front of her.

"I will let you do nothing to Princess."

"Virgo, you're hurt! If I do what they ask, then I can stop you from getting worse and stop the rest of you from getting hurt as well!"

"Tell me something, Maid. Why do you call her 'Princess'? Is it just a title; a pet name you've chosen for your master? Or are you perhaps hiding something?"

"I know nothing," Virgo informed Juvia, with a fierce fire in her eyes that lead Juvia and Lucy to believe that there was, in fact, something she wasn't saying.

"It'll take a lot for you to relinquish anything, I see," Juvia sighed, then addressed the blonde. "To tell you the truth, Lady Heartfilia, your maid here is not the only servant of yours who's been hurt." Lucy stared at the woman with daggers in her eyes in order to force Juvia to reveal more. "A blue haired woman got in the way of my colleague, so he attacked her. She's currently being held by my ally and is probably suffering as we speak."

"Levy!" the girls both cried.

"She has nothing to do with anything!" Virgo urged. "Nothing to do with Celestia!"

"It's unfortunate to say this, but if you want to save her, you'll have to come with me." Juvia truly did feel regret that the girl had been hurt. This maid had been hurt as well, but it wasn't severe at all. That girl, however - Levy - had been at the mercy of her teammate, who was as sadistic as they came. _And it was partially my fault, as well,_ Juvia recalled. It had been because she insisted that they try to gain information from the Heartfilias without killing the daughter that the black-haired man she was teamed with had decided to throw his attacks at the next person who got in the way.

"I'll come with you, but you have to allow our doctors to take care of Virgo and Levy."

Juvia nodded. Lady Heartfilia's demands were reasonable.

 **oOo**

"Nngh!" Levy refused to cry out as this man had his way with her, attacking her with an iron club. Pain blossomed from every part of her body, but she would never give this man the satisfaction of her screams. He also had a huge iron sword, but he hadn't touched it at all, content with just beating her with his club.

"You're resilient," the man remarked. "It's annoying. And boring. When you don't scream, it's not as entertaining to beat you up." Which was exactly why Levy had stayed mostly silent. He hit her in the gut with his club, causing her to cough and hold hands to her stomach and mouth as she tried not to vomit. When she assessed that she would not, in fact, toss her cookies, Levy groaned and laid back on the ground, awaiting more beatings.

The man scoffed, however, and tossed his weapon aside. "Damn, this is boring. I hope that Heartfilia girl is more of a damn screamer. When is Juvia gonna get back here with her?"

"You-" Levy coughed. "You aren't going to hurt her," she continued in a croaky voice.

The man laughed. "And what, you're gonna stop me?"

"No. _We're_ going to stop you. All of Lucy's servants."

"Keh. And why would you do that?"

"Because we love her. Lucy makes it so easy to love her, and she's got so many faithful friends looking out for her." The man just scoffed again as he began to polish his weaponry. "You know," Levy started again. "I've heard of you."

"And why would a random maid know anything about me?"

"I have my sources. You're Black Steel," she remarked with disdain.

"Yeah?" Gajeel said with a smirk. "Black Steel Gajeel at your service. What of it?"

Levy spat. "So Gajeel's your name. You were in the group that killed Lisanna."

"I don't even know who that is," Gajeel said with a grunt.

"Lady Lisanna Strauss! The sweetest and most caring girl I've ever had the pleasure of knowing! She was with her sister and brother when they encountered a Baram reconnaissance mission to Fiore a few years ago, which you were a part of! Mira and Elfman haven't been the same after that, and Mira even put her sword away until just recently! She thought she would never want to touch it again!"

Gajeel listened silently as the tiny girl went off on her tirade. He thought back to a few years ago, when she had indicated that mission was. Three siblings, two of whom were females. Gajeel could remember them now. The older girl had had a huge ass sword. The other one, though, the one who'd died... "Are you talking about that girl with the short white hair? She had a bunch of throwing knives and some brass knuckles?"

"So something jogged your memory?" Levy retorted with venom in her voice.

"She was sweet and caring? She seemed vicious. She had brass knuckles, for crying out loud! Gave Azuma a scar right across his chest!"

"Shut up! You didn't know her! You killed her before you got the chance to! Or, someone from your group did..."

"No, you're right. It was me who killed her. She was the first Fioran to die by my hands. And boy, did she scream. Beautiful screamer. She screamed for her siblings to run while I beat her bloody with one of her brother's maces."

"How..." Levy started, shaking in anger. "How can you speak so casually of it!? If you had any ability whatsoever in that cold, black heart of yours to care for someone other than yourself, then those screams wouldn't have been so beautiful. Lisanna and so many others would still be with us if it weren't for sadistic bastards like you! Entire kingdoms would still be alive if it weren't for people like you!"

Gajeel shrugged. "When you're raised to kill, not much can phase you." Levy was silent at his heavy comment. She hadn't ever thought of it like that. "God, I don't even know why I'm talking to you."

"Did it never occur to you that what you do causes pain to others!?"

"You think we were allowed to think so? I watched the other kids say 'no'. Any sign of remorse or inobedience or regret, and we got the same beating I just gave you."

"And yet, knowing how painful it was, you still did it to me. And tried to find it enjoyable. You really are just trying to save your own skin."

"Why wouldn't I? I don't owe this world or its people anything. I don't even care about this stupid war. I just did what I was told so I wouldn't get hurt. And then I became the sadistic bastard you see before you." Gajeel smirked at his reference to the tiny woman's words. It might've been a heavy topic, he might've mentioned his past, which he absolutely hated, and the girl might've been a beaten mess, but somehow he was finding this conversation... Somewhat enjoyable? Why?

"You may not owe anything to the world, but we all owe it to each other to not be assholes. We're all stuck in this mess of a world. Wouldn't it be less of one if we could all be decent human beings to each other?"

Gajeel snorted. "If you had my shithole of a childhood, you wouldn't be worried about that."

"Is that so?" Levy remarked with a sneer. Gajeel grunted, knowing full well at this point that she had a retort for anything he said. "Well, plenty of others have had a 'shithole' of a childhood. Children get abused and tons of crap like that, and most of them manage to have basic human decency, if not becoming even more empathetic. Also, I know several people who had a childhood at least starting similar to yours and one person specifically who shared a lot your story, at least for a while."

"Oh yeah? And what story is that?"

"The story of your home kingdom being invaded and destroyed, which a good chunk of citizens know the feeling of. You, however, didn't flee; you were captured. You were just a little boy, living in Koori, when suddenly Koori was no more and you had to start working as a tiny slave for your new country, called Baram. You were only five years old, but you can remember everything clearly. You saw blood come from everyone around you that tried to say that this wasn't right, and you did everything you could to protect yourself, which meant following every instruction you were given. Even if it meant someone was hurt, you listened to your leaders. You just didn't want to be the one getting hurt."

Levy continued. "Your leaders noticed your willingness to obey. They started giving you even more of the jobs that brought pain upon others. Since you had nothing else, you started enjoying the missions they gave you. You started enjoying shedding blood and hearing screams of pain. You started wanting to hear the gurgles of death, but you had never left Baram, and you weren't allowed to kill the precious resources that Baram found in its people. I can only imagine how excited you were to be sent into Fiore those years ago and how hopeful you were that you would run into Fiorans, because you would finally be allowed to take the life of another. And here you are today. You've probably taken several more lives at this point, and you're hoping that Lucy and Lord Jude are going to be uncooperative so that you can cause more death today. You probably wanted to kill me, too. You probably wanted to take that sword of yours over there and stab me over and over again until I was screaming for mercy, screaming for you to plunge it into my heart so I could have the sweet release of death. I'm not sure why not, but you obviously haven't killed me yet."

"Y-" Gajeel was wide-eyed. He didn't know how to respond to that and had his mouth open and gaping as he struggled for words. "How... Who... What kinda sources do you have!?"

Levy gave a small, cocky smile. She would've probably laughed too, but just feeling her chest tighten from the start of a chuckle, she abruptly stopped, sensing a great deal of pain wash over her from the injuries Gajeel'd given her. "That didn't come from my sources. It was easy enough to figure out."

Gajeel grumbled at that. He wasn't supposed to be so easy to read. He thought he'd shed anything to do with his past, but this girl had drug it back up and was seemingly tearing it down. All she'd said was the truth, nothing more, nothing even really opinionated, but something was feeling heavy -or maybe it felt lighter? He honestly couldn't tell- in his chest. Gajeel couldn't figure out what he was supposed to think, but this light -or heavy- thing he felt was... Scaring him. And looking at this woman and realizing that he was the one that marred her porcelain skin with the hideous black and blue bruises just made that feeling worse. He looked away from her body and his eyes fell on his weapons. The club made the weird pangs worse as well, and seeing the blood of other people staining the edge of his sword wasn't as bad, but it still affected him a bit. What had this girl done to him!?

He didn't think he wanted to know, so he shoved it back down from where she had brought it up from. He didn't want to deal with it, because he knew trying to would just bring up a whole mess of crap. He tried to change the subject, although it had still gone to the girl's words.

"How do you know I was captured from Koori? How do you know I'm not Celestian? And how'd you know I was five?"

"Okay, I admit I don't know that for sure, but you just seem more like a Kooran than a Celestian, and you look to be twenty-four, twenty-five, so you would've been five or six nineteen years ago."

"Has it been that long already?" Gajeel offhandedly commented.

"You didn't know?"

"I haven't exactly been counting the years."

"That makes sense."

There was a pause.

"You said..." Gajeel started. He gulped. "You said you knew someone that 'shared my story'?" Besides the random Kooran and Celestian escapees she might know, how did she know anyone with a past similar to his? A past full of psychological and physical torture at the hands of Baram? She couldn't have had any sort of acquaintance with a Baramese, and she definitely couldn't have one with a former Baramese, because those didn't even exist. Once Baram captured someone, there would be no escaping, or so he'd thought and been told.

"Erza," Levy responded. "Or, as you would probably know her, the Titania."

"What!?"

"Erza Scarlet, the Titania, is an escapee from Baram. She was enslaved as a child, just as you, but she managed to get out years ago, and she's been fighting here in Fiore for Baram's destruction ever since. I'm pretty certain she has friends that are still stuck in Baram, as well." Erza hadn't actually shared any of that with Levy, but being the intuitive and observational woman she was, she'd figured it out.

"I never knew... Titania had to be just a little girl then, and she escaped!?" His conversation partner hummed an affirmative. "I didn't think... Nobody gets out of Baram. I remember, once, it had to have been a year after all this shit started, something happened and some of the kids got out. But when we were told that everyone involved was 'taken care of'... I think that's when I kinda lost hope and started doing what I was told." Why am I telling her that!? I don't talk about myself! Much less my feelings! Gajeel shook his head to clear it. "But they must not have gotten all the escapees. Titania must've left during that mess. If only kid-me knew... I might not have become such a 'sadistic bastard'." He laughed again at his allusion to the shrimp's words. Gajeel heard a very short giggle, cut off by a round of coughing. "You okay?" _Why did I just ask that? I never care if someone's 'okay'! And besides, of_ course _she's not okay! I spent the better part of three minutes hitting her with a giant iron club! I don't even have the_ right _to ask if she's 'okay'! Really, I shouldn't even have the right to talk to her!_

"You know," Levy started in her post-cough croak, "it's kind of funny."

"Funny?" Was she talking about his dumb joke about being a bastard?

"Funny that just a couple minutes ago, you were attacking defenseless me with a club, and now we're just having a normal conversation. Well, almost normal. Not really normal at all. But you know what I mean." She coughed again, and Gajeel's gut twisted with that weird feeling from before.

"I..." Gajeel fell silent, once again at a loss for words.

However, he wouldn't have to figure out what to say next, because in the next moment, Juvia arrived with some pink haired maid clutching her shoulder and a person he had to assume was the Heartfilia girl.

"Levy! Oh my lord, are you okay!?"

So that was the tiny woman's name. Gajeel hadn't even realized he didn't know it. He watched as Levy nodded, but then struggled to stand up, even with help from the blonde. Gajeel noticed an urge to go and help her himself, but he somehow had the feeling that Heartfilia wouldn't be letting him anywhere near Levy until... Well, probably never, with the practically murderous look Heartfilia was giving him.

"You and Virgo are going to the doctor immediately," Lucy remarked, immediately met with protests.

"No, Princess. I'm not leaving you alone!"

"And neither am I!"

"Levy, don't even bother fighting me! You need a doctor before those injuries get worse! You're going! And Virgo, you'll be taking her and make sure your shoulder is taken care of, as well." She was met with more grumbles from them. "You know I don't like doing this, but if you won't listen, I have to. I order you two to leave me here and go to the medical room immediately." Neither girl could refuse a direct order from Lucy, so despite the fact that they continued protesting, they left.

"Now, Lady Heartfilia, is the time to ask for your information," Juvia pointed out.

Lucy already knew what they wanted to know, but as they weren't supposed to know that she had just been in Baram, Lucy acted as if she were oblivious. "What do you want to know? And why would I know it?"

"The Heartfilias are next in line to the throne after the current royal family. As such, your family is probably trusted with many of Fiore's secrets. We want you to tell us where the Celestian and Kooran heirs are."

Lucy continued to feign her surprise and confusion. "The heirs? I don't kno- KYAH!"

Gajeel had done it mostly out of habit. He'd helped interrogate people before, and had been trained to immediately 'remind' those who didn't know answers. Once Lucy had started to utter the phrase, Gajeel had hit her in the gut with his club, earning a scream he would've thought was beautiful just five minutes ago. But the moment his club had hit and the scream began to leave Lucy's lips, the voice of the tiny woman -Levy- invaded his mind

 _"If you had any ability whatsoever in that cold, black heart of yours to care for someone other than yourself, then those screams wouldn't have been so beautiful. Lisanna and so many others would still be with us if it weren't for sadistic bastards like you! Entire kingdoms would still be alive if it weren't for people like you!"_

Gajeel suddenly came back to his senses. Heartfilia stared up at him with hate and clenched teeth, but a twinge of confusion while Juvia also looked at him in surprise and not understanding. He then realized that his hand felt awfully light for holding a giant iron weapon, which was when he noticed that it was light because it was empty. Looking around, he saw it rolling along the floor, feet in front of him and the opposite direction of its latest victim. He'd just thrown his club out of his hands.

"Tch." Gajeel crosses his arms. "Where's Snowy?"

"Lyon is talking to Lord Heartfilia."

"Well, let's go join him. Her father'll know more than the girl, anyways. It's why we were supposed to just kill her."

Juvia gave him an incredulous look, but nodded. She gave a worried glance towards Heartfilia, and Gajeel responded to her unvoiced question.

"We'll keep her locked in here in case she's still needed afterwards. Don't worry, we're not gonna kill ya." His last sentence was meant for Heartfilia.

And with that, Juvia nodded to her ally and they walked out the door of the chamber they currently resided in. Juvia turned and clicked the lock on the door.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading, following and favoriting!**

 **Shout out to MasterGildarts, XxCelestialPrincessxX, IndigoArcher89, Larissa, BlueberryPancake, and FairyFireCat for reviewing! I love and appreciate every review I get!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello again!**

 **I should probably tell you guys - I've got about a month left until my classes are over, and I don't know how frequent my access to computers will be over the summer. I'm going to try and keep working on chapters, but posting them _may_ be a bit of an issue. Anyway, I'm trying to say that as infrequent as these chapters have been, they'll be moreso for the next couple of months, most likely. Just a warning.**

* * *

When Natsu realized that he had aware senses and that he was in the realm of consciousness, he desperately wished that when he opened his eyes, he wouldn't see the grimy fortress, but rather... Whatever Lucy's house looked like. And the pure white ceiling with gold finishings that he saw when he opened them gave him his answer.

Natsu darted up from the red-carpeted floor. "Lucy!" Without thinking, he darted down the well-lit hallway. He didn't know where he was going, so he just kept his eyes peeled for a door that Lucy might've been hiding behind. Passing by decorations of various values, all of which contained gold, precious gems, or both, Natsu whistled. _Man, Luce really is nobility. She's freaking loaded!_

 _"Hey Luce, did you know that when I first met you, I thought you were a noble?"_

 _A giggle. "Nope. Only a chambermaid."_

 _"I know that now!" he said defensively. "But you're still a princess to me. You're my princess."_

These things were getting even weirder. Before, the conversations had all seemed like something that _could've_ happened, but this time... The words had still been said by he and Lucy, but there was absolutely no way that this conversation had ever happened! Lucy _wasn't_ a chambermaid, and he knew that for a fact! Erza wouldn't make up the fact that Lucy was the Lady Heartfilia.

Natsu shook his head. He could keep thinking about this later, maybe ask Lucy or somebody else what they thought. But right now, he had a mission to rescue who he had apparently called his 'princess' at one point.

He could hear people talking just around the corner he was coming up on. A gut feeling told him that he should try and listen to their conversation instead of doing his usual bursting in yelling. Slowing down to a creep, Natsu went up to the edge of where this hallway met the next and listened.

"What are you doing over here?" Natsu heard a man say. "Did you already finish with the Heartfilia girl?" After hearing that, it took every bit of self-control he had to stop himself from punching the lights out of these people. These had to be the Baramese soldiers sent to gain information.

"The girl didn't seem to know, so we decided to help you with her father," a woman claimed.

"So you just let her go!?" The first voice was furious and confused with his allies.

"Tch. We're not stupid. The girl is locked in one of the dozens of rooms this fucking house has," another man responded.

"Well, I think someone should go back and guard her. Anyone could go and let her out. Juvia's with me. You go back."

"Tch. You just wanna stay with your woman, Snowy."

"My name's Lyon!"

"I am not his woman."

'Lyon' grunted at that and replied, "You probably wanna go back to torturing the girl, anyways, Gajeel!" Natsu saw red. Gajeel. Gajeel was his name. Gajeel apparently tortured Lucy. Gajeel had hurt Lucy. _How bad is she hurt!? Is she okay!? Why did they even target her!? After Lucy's reaction, she obviously doesn't know anything about any 'heirs'! Well, not that Baram saw her reaction... Ugh! Where is she!? I have to find her! I have to make sure she's safe! But I also wanna beat the crap out of Gajeel for hurting her!_

Surprisingly for him, a plan actually popped in Natsu's head. Lyom and Buvia (those were their names, right?) were sending Gajeel back to Lucy. _I can burn two bridges with one rock, or whatever that phrase is! I'll follow Gajeel, make sure Lucy's safe, and then beat him up for hurting her!_ He could hear the debate around the corner coming to an end, so Natsu hurriedly ducked into a door right next to him. Watching as Gajeel passed the door, Natsu darted out, putting his ninja 'skills' to use.

Natsu followed the black-haired man, darting between and behind doors and whatever decor or furniture happened to be in the hallway. When he tripped over a suit of armor, Natsu was sure he was caught, but somehow, Gajeel hadn't noticed him.

Or so he thought. After two minutes or so of following, Gajeel suddenly turned around and glared in the direction of Natsu's current hiding place, which happened to be a giant vase he'd scrambled into.

"I know you're following me. What the hell do you want?" Natsu stayed silent. _He has to be bluffing, right? My ninja skills compare to no others!_ "You do realize I can hear you, right? I'm not frickin' bluffing and you have no 'ninja skills'."

Natsu scoffed at the insult before he remarked, "Wait, I said that out loud?"

Gajeel rolled his eyes. "Obviously. For being a renowned knight, you're kind of an idiot, Salamander." He didn't know how the Salamander had gotten here, since he was supposedly imprisoned in Baram, but Gajeel didn't really care either way.

Natsu poked his head out of the vase. "Who said I was the Salamander?"

Gajeel rolled his eyes again. "You have pink hair and are wearing the Fairy emblem. It wasn't that hard to figure out." _It was easy enough to figure out..._ The voice of that girl invaded his mind again. _Agh, get out of my head, girl!_

"Oh," Natsu remarked simply. He climbed out of the vase (an endeavor that ended with it being broken and his left hand cut and bleeding a little) and lifted his sword towards Gajeel. "Well, then you probably know how good I am with a sword. You hurt Lucy, and I'm not letting you walk away so easy after that."

 _Who the fuck is Lucy? Oh right, probably the Heartfilia chick._ He thought he could recall Levy ( _no, I shouldn't be calling her by name_ ) referring to Heartfilia as Lucy. "Tch. I didn't torture her or anything like Snowy said. I hit her once. She's probably fine."

Natsu's jaw clenched. "Whether you hit her once, twice, or a thousand times, you still gave her pain. Take me to her."

Gajeel rolled his eyes at the pink-haired man. "She's right in there, dumbass," he said, gesturing towards the door Natsu was standing directly in front of.

Natsu turned his head to see what Gajeel was gesturing at. When he saw the sturdy mahogany doors behind, he whipped his entire body around and immediately threw himself into the door, shouting Lucy's name. It gave way under his force, and the door opened and caused the frame to splinter simultaneously.

"You really are a fucking moron. The latch was on the outside of the door." The Salamander, however, paid no heed to Gajeel as he ran to Lucy within the room. She was resting on the bed in the chamber to avoid aggravating the bruise Gajeel had given her, but upon hearing Natsu crash the door open, she scrambled off the bed and dashed to him.

"Lucy, you're okay!" Natsu shouted with glee. His grin was wider than Lucy had ever seen it.

And she was happy, too, to see him. But... "Natsu, what are you doing here!? And you could've unlocked the door! You didn't have to destroy it!"

Natsu shrugged as he briefly glanced to the splintered door. "Whoops." Gajeel rolled his eyes again at the fact that Natsu had actually acknowledged the girl's remark that was virtually the same as his own. "Anyways, I'm saving you, of course! I can't tell you how worried I was, but you're okay!" Natsu wrapped his arms around Lucy in a hug. Lucy was about to melt into it, but then his hug caused the stinging pain in her gut to flare.

"Ow!" she yelped. "Natsu, let go!" Natsu instantly did as she said as his grin slipped off his face.

"You are hurt. Where?" Natsu asked with a hard voice as he suddenly recalled Gajeel's remark that he had, in fact, hit her once.

"My stomach. He hit me with a giant iron club when I couldn't tell them anything about the heirs." Lucy had a dress on that Natsu, for obvious reasons, wouldn't be able to lift up to look at the bruise, but he carressed it gently to gauge her pain. Lucy winced at the touch, causing Natsu to let go. Natsu wrapped his arms around Lucy again, but this time mindful of her injury. Lucy gave a smile to Natsu and then a quick, nervous glance to the man standing in the broken doorway, not unnoticed by Natsu. He smiled as a way to comfort Lucy before shooting a glare back at Gajeel.

Natsu turned his head back to look at Lucy. He was attuned to every bit of her. Every movement, every word, even every breath that passed through her lips and made her chest rise and fall. He paid the utmost attention to it all, and if anyone who knew him, including Lucy, found out, they would outright guffaw in disbelief. Natsu didn't focus like this on really anything. He focused while fighting, sure, but it was a different kind of focusing than his attention to Lucy.

Natsu buried his head in her shoulder, his smile pressed against the skin of her neck. Lucy gave a careful laugh that was almost a cry as she leaned into him much the same way.

She was okay. She really was. Her stomach was probably bruised, but if it was super serious, she wouldn't be smiling and standing with him. She was okay. What would he have done if she wasn't? Until this moment, he'd refused to think of that possibility. Sure, the idea that maybe she wasn't okay had crossed his mind, but he hadn't dwelled on it, hadn't thought about what it could mean if she'd been injured. It had been the same when Lucy had gone to fetch the keys. But now he'd been thinking about it too long, and he could feel the panic start to set in. Lucy could have died, easily, in both scenarios. In just this last day, there'd been so many situations in which she could've died, and if not dead, then terribly injured. _Why am I thinking like this?_

Natsu leaned back up, and Lucy must've noticed worry glaze over his features, because with a tentative voice, she called his name. Natsu shook his head to clear his dark thoughts and smiled at Lucy again. He guided Lucy's head into laying on his chest and rested his head on hers, burrowing his nose into her golden hair. Taking a long breath in of her scent and stroking his fingers through her hair, Natsu smiled. _She's right here. Don't even imagine that she could be hurt so badly, Natsu._ _Especially since she's right here in your arms._ Natsu couldn't believe how important she was to him. _She's just already so special to me! We've only known each other for... What, four days!? It hasn't even been a week!? But I feel like I've known her for a lifetime already! Right when we met, actually, it kind of felt like we were old... best friends? I guess? Something like that. I don't know. But nearly everything about her makes me wanna smile! Her weirdness, her confidence, that cute pout with her puffed-out cheeks, that beautiful smile, that bubbly laugh..._

Lucy looked up at him in wonder as to why he was holding her like this and looking at her like that. It felt so... intimate. Her heart was beating equally as fast as Natsu's, and they could both feel how hard the other's chests were thumping from how close they were. Lucy felt a blush creep onto her cheeks, but for some reason, she didn't feel all that embarrassed. This was so _right._ Everything she felt with him was _so right_ and felt _perfect._ Natsu continued to stare down at her and Lucy noticed that his gaze kept flicking between her eyes and her lips.

Natsu bent his back slightly as Lucy's heels crept up from the ground to lift her closer to Natsu. They could both feel each other's breath again, just as they had on the mountain. Lucy noticed that she was starting to feel dizzy with anticipation. Her eyelids began to droop and Lucy watched as Natsu's did the same.

It was at this point that Gajeel decided he'd better leave. Even he, someone who'd grown up in a very different society, could tell when a couple should be alone. Nothing was even happening, really, but it just felt like intruding. He honestly wouldn't have cared less any time before now, but ever since that girl had done... Whatever it is she did to him, he'd just been _feeling_ more. Things he'd brushed off before were suddenly attacking him with their full force, and he could hardly resist them. Regret for the pain he'd inflicted, especially on that girl, embarrassment and even a little understanding for the obviously-in-love pair before him... Why was he suddenly feeling all these emotions he'd tried and succeeded to ignore all these years?

Gajeel had just been waiting around to see if the Salamander would fulfill his promise to beat Gajeel up. He didn't really care if he would or not, but he had guessed he owed Natsu the chance to, given that Gajeel had punched his apparent girlfriend. Their team was never told that Heartfilia was dating Salamander, which seemed just a _tad_ important since it was obvious how protective Salamander was, but Gajeel shrugged. _It's not like I really gave a damn about this mission or Baram_. He was only around to torture victims. But now that girl had apparently taken that away from him, given that the moment he hurt Heartfilia, Levy ( _no, don't. I still don't think it's right for me to think her name like that._ ) had invaded and taken over his senses.

No, there was no reason for him to give a fuck about Baram. Why should he? They spent his childhood beating him and his old friends senseless until they either died or became numb to morals, as he had. Maybe he just wouldn't return. Sure, they'd be pissed off at his disappearance, but he doubted Baram would waste resources on trying to retrieve him. Hades knew how little he actually cared for Baram's cause; if they really cared all too much about whether or not he'd abandon, they wouldn't have sent him to Fiore and make it so easy.

And so, as Salamander and Heartfilia started leaning closer to each other, Gajeel took his leave, walking out the door and heading for the manor's huge front entrance, where he took his first steps out of Baram's hands.

Or, that's how it should've happened. Instead, as he stepped through the door's threshold, he tripped on a broken plank of wood. He didn't fall all the way to the floor, but as he tripped, he did curse a few profanities rather loudly.

 **oOo**

"What do you know, Lord Heartfilia? I will not be asking again," Lyon demanded coldly from the fearful and whimpering man in front of him. Apparently the lord was quite the coward.

"I- I told you! I don't-don't know anything! What's this about heirs? Who are- who are the heirs?" Jude Hearfilia tried to stay calm, but when he was truthfully hiding something that these vicious Baramese soldiers would do anything to get... it was a tad difficult. And he was so obviously feigning obliviousness.

Lyon groaned. They'd been at this for a while again now. Juvia and Lyon had both tried their own tactics, but Jude just kept playing dumb or freezing up to the point he couldn't say or do anything useful to anyone. "Tell me where the Princess Ceres and the Prince Jitensha are, now!" Lyon forcefully grabbed Jude's shoulders. Jude froze in fear once again, stuttering out incoherent words.

"Lyon," Juvia called from where she stood. "Back off and come here."

"Yes, Juvia-darling!" Lyon responded, his mood and stature completely flipped.

Juvia rolled her eyes. "I want you to ask about his wife. The Lady Layla Heartfilia." Out of the corner of her eye, Juvia saw Jude flinch at the sound of his deceased wife's name.

"What does she have to do with anything?"

"Do you remember the file? She seemed to arrive at Heartfilia Manor out of nowhere about a week after the attack on Celestia? We have nothing on her before that point, not even a maiden name. We didn't think much of it before, but..."

"You think she has something to do with the Ceres family?" Juvia nodded.

"And I think some of these servants might know something, as well."

"Why don't you go question them, then? Servant's quarters are just past the entrance hall."

Juvia waved as she started to leave the room. "Yes, I know." Lyon gave her a wave, and then the door was shut behind her

Lyon cracked his knuckles and stared down Jude. "Now, where were we? I'd like to ask you about your wife."

* * *

 **Thank you for reading, favoriting, and following!**

 **A special thank you to XxCelestialPrincessxX, Mrs I don't care, MasterGildarts, Guest, Larissa, and mynameishelby for revewing!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello, here to throw another chapter at you ^_^**

* * *

Erza finished her battle against Azuma and set her sights on the insane woman battling Gray. They needed to talk, and while now may not have been the ideal time to do it, Erza couldn't find herself caring too much. It had been years since they'd seen each other; Erza needed an explanation. Why had Ultear sided with Baram? What happened? And what was she yelling about with Gray? "Gray, do you need any assistance?" Erza didn't bother waiting for an answer before giving Ultear a kick, knocking her to the ground.

"Ultear," Erza said with a kind of sad familiarity.

"Erza," Ultear responded with a strange mix of venom and friendliness in her voice as she stood. Gray tried to attack her, but Ultear met his sword with her own.

Erza shot a glare his way. "Back off, Gray. I'm taking this battle now. I want a chat with this woman."

"Erza, we shouldn't drag this out," Gray remarked.

"I'll keep it short," Erza replied. She would usually agree, usually be the one to tell Gray and Natsu to hurry up, but right now... She was compelled to talk with her childhood friend, whom she'd known long before even Jellal.

"Seems like my past is really coming up today," Ultear said with scorn. She glared between Erza and Gray, trying to decide who her target should be. She decided on Erza, it seemed, but she still made sure to pay attention to the man who'd stolen her mother.

The two continued to stare at each other, one with disdain and the other in an almost angry confusion. Both had their swords raised, ready to strike while Gray glanced nervously and confusedly from one to the other. Did they know each other? Erza had dropped hints to such a thing, but this seemed much more personal than he'd first guessed.

And then Ultear made her move. She swung her sword around to hit Erza in the stomach, but Titania had been waiting for such an attack. She lunged to the side and swung her own sword to block the attack. "What happened to you, Ultear!? We were friends!" Gray gaped at the reveal. They'd been friends?

"I'm sure you heard me screaming about it earlier."

"Yes. Gray supposedly stole your mother away. Care to explain?" Erza asked. It just seemed strange. Erza had known Ultear's mother when they'd been children. Ur, a general of Koori and an extremely loving and doting mother, had been almost like a second mother to Erza, as well. Years later, when she'd met Gray at the Kasain palace, he'd mentioned an Ur as his adoptive mother who'd recently been killed. Erza had put it off as a coincidence, but Ultear was so certain that Gray's Ur had been General Ur Milkovich. What had happened? Why did Ultear become abandoned and end up fighting for Baram and why had Gray been protected and gotten out of the danger by Ur?

Erza only needed a few more pieces and the puzzle would become clear.

"Ultear," Erza said sadly again. "We were friends. Best friends. We played together nearly every day. Heck, your mother was practically my own mother with how much time I spent at your house. Please, for old times' sake, explain what you've been screaming about. Tell me your story. Tell me what happened when Baram attacked."

 **oOo**

"Ow, fucking hell!" Upon hearing that and the loud stumbling that came from the heavy-footed Gajeel afterwards, Natsu and Lucy were torn out of their fervor. Jumping away from each other as blushing, stuttery, and flustered messes, Lucy and Natsu looked to the cause of the noise. Lucy tottled a bit in her dizziness when Natsu's arms were no longer holding her up. They both took a few awkward glances at each other, only growing more red, until Natsu finally decided to do something about Gajeel.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going!" Natsu yelled, a little more angrily than it had been before.

Gajeel shrugged. "You seemed busy. I was leaving."

"By God's bones, I sure as hell ain't letting you leave! You hurt Lucy!" Natsu turned back around to look at Lucy. "Hey, Luce. Do you have a hospital wing here?" She nodded. "You should head over there while I take care of this. I don't want your injury to get worse." Lucy nodded again. She carefully walked past the two males and to the door.

At the door, she hesitated a bit before saying, "Be careful, Natsu."

Natsu gave a grin. "I promise!"

And then she was gone as more words swept through their heads.

 _"You promise?"_

 _"I promise."_

Despite the hopeful words heard from Lucy and Natsu's voices respectively, though, a feeling of unending worry and anxiety washed over them. Lucy felt an almost choking depression wash over her and almost felt like crying. Natsu gained a feeling of uncertainty and immense desire to... stop someone's tears? He didn't know how much sense that made, but that's what his gut was telling him. The feelings were gone with the words, but neither could help but be a bit nervous about the probably broken promise. What had Natsu promised? When had he promised it?

Natsu stared after Lucy for a bit before drawing his sword and pointing it at Gajeel.

"Grab your sword." Natsu flicked his head in the direction of the iron sword on the ground that could only belong to his adversary.

Gajeel was surprised. "What?"

"I said, 'Grab your sword'," Natsu repeated. "I'm not just gonna start attacking you with a weapon when you don't have one. That's not how I fight. I'm not you."

Gajeel rolled his eyes, but did as he was indicated and lifted his sword towards Natsu's. And then the clash began. Natsu could tell Gajeel didn't care, that Gajeel was putting forth little effort, which just made Natsu want to battle Gajeel for real. Even now, the fight was a tad challenging. Definitely moreso than his fight with that one dude from his second dream with Lucy. _It'd probably be easier if I was actually using the Fire Dragon._

"You know," Gajeel started. He didn't know why he was bothering to tell this to Salamander, but whatever. He'd been doing a lot of "whatever" things lately. "When we were assigned to Heartfilia, we were never told she was your lady."

Natsu's sword dropped to the floor with a clang as his cheeks began to flush.

"She's... Uh... Not my lady..." Natsu stated with a cough as he picked his sword back up.

"What? You guys were..."

"I was happy she was safe!"

Gajeel rolled his eyes. _So they're one of those couples. The ones that aren't technically one but just need to become one._ Drama like that happened even in Baram.

And then their swords were clanging again. Gajeel could tell that Salamander had a certain newfound drive in the battle, which he could only guess was the mention of Heartfilia. It wasn't too long before Natsu was kicking Gajeel in the chest, knocking him to the ground, and then pointing his sword at the man before he could get up.

"I can't drag this on anymore. I've gotta go see how Lucy's doing. But next time, I expect you to fight me properly." And with that, Natsu was darting out the door.

"Tch."

Gajeel stood up. _Next time?_ They'd probably never meet again. He walked out of the room and looked for which direction the front door had been in. After a bit of walking, the big entrance hall came to his line of sight.

 _It's now or never_ , he thought. Gajeel walked towards the double doors.

"Gajeel!"

He turned around at the sound of the blue-haired woman's voice.

"Hey."

"Where are you going?"

Gajeel shrugged. "Not to Baram."

"You're going to desert?" she questioned.

Gajeel knew he wouldn't have any issues telling her the truth and shrugged again. "Sure. Might as well."

The girl looked conflicted, Gajeel could tell. He waited as she figured out what to say.

"I want to come with you."

"Really?"

"Yes. You know how much I hate Baram. I'm not going back, either. Lyon wanted me to go question the servants on a hunch I had, but..."

Gajeel shrugged again. "Alright, Juvia. But what are we gonna do about Snowy? He's probably not gonna just up and leave Baram or let us do it."

Juvia gave it a thought. It was true that Lyon wouldn't want to just leave Baram because of 'whatever' like Gajeel, and he didn't hate Baram and killing as she did. But... "He is seeking someone. He's told me about it. We can convince him that we can all go seek out the man."

Lyon had told her about his past. She'd listened politely, being the decent woman she was, but she hadn't thought at the time that his blabbering would help her desert Baram's army. He was seeking out a man who had been pretty much like a brother to Lyon, but had somehow caused their adoptive mother's death. She'd been killed by someone after Lyon's brother. Juvia couldn't remember all the details, but she knew that Lyon wasn't even totally sure why his brother had been a target.

Lyon had never told her how he'd come to Baram, but she had the feeling it was under the simple pretense that they would make him stronger. Since joining Baram, however, he hadn't been able to search for his "brother", but the promise that he could leave now to find him combined with Juvia "the love of his life" Lockser telling him and continuing to be his companion, she thought that he would be willing to desert Baram like she and Gajeel.

She told all that to Gajeel, who agreed.

"Gajeel, if I may ask, why do you suddenly want to leave?"

Gajeel shrugged, even though he did know the answer. That tiny girl. He expected Juvia to drop it, but it seemed as if she was too curious.

"You don't know? I'm pretty sure you do." Gajeel shrugged again. "It has something to do with that Levy girl. Something happened while you two were alone." Gajeel just grunted in response, confirming her guess, and she decided then to drop it.

 **oOo**

It took Natsu a while, but he managed to find the hospital wing Lucy had mentioned.

"Lucy, I'm here!" He cried as he darted into the room. She was in there with a blue haired girl and a pink haired girl as well as some other woman that seemed to be acting as a nurse, but he paid no mind to any but Lucy.

"Natsu! You finished your fight!"

He nodded. "Yeah! How's your stomach?"

"It's just a bad bruise, so I'll be fine!"

"That's so great!" Natsu hugged her tightly before lifting his head to look at her face. They both grinned and stared at each other with happiness before they heard a teasing cough from the hospital bed occupied by the bluenette of the room.

"Who's your... visitor, Lucy?" Levy asked with an eyebrow waggle. Virgo had the same teasing look, and Lucy was blushing brightly, knowing that both women knew of her frenzy after the last dream. She had only told Levy, but she just knew that the bluenette and Virgo had gossiped about her and Natsu. Natsu noticed the blush and couldn't help but turn pink, as well.

"Virgo, Levy, this is Natsu the Salamander. Natsu, Virgo and Levy, my _dear, dear_ friends," she introduced, putting a sarcastic stress on 'dear, dear'. Despite this, everyone greeted one another kindly.

"Levy... Do I know you?" Natsu asked as he stared at Levy with a confused familiarity.

"I lived at the Fioran castle before I started working here," she told him. "We played together a bit when you visited, along with Mirajane and the others, but it didn't dawn on me who this 'Natsu' Lucy had met was until just recently," she smiled to him.

"Oh yeah!" Natsu exclaimed after staring at her in continued scrutiny. "The blue haired kid! The daughter of that purple haired lady who watched us all the time! What was her name again?"

"Elizabeth."

"Elizabeth! Man, it's been awhile, Levy! I'd forgotten about you! You were always so shy and stuck to your mom's side all the time!"

Lucy laughed as the two reminisced Natsu's childhood visits to the Fioran castle. The two hadn't exactly been the closest, but they had known each other. Lucy had to wonder why Natsu had ever been to the castle, though. Perhaps part of his family were knights, as well and had brought him along on a visit?

"So this is your rescuer and the," Levy laughed, "'man of your dreams.'"

Lucy nodded with pink cheeks. "Yes, I told you that already."

"Haha, I just wanted to tease a bit more."

"Well, Lady Levy, that shall be enough teasing, as you need to get your sleep. Lady Lucy, Virgo, you're clear to go. Just sleep off the remainder of those injuries. You'll be fine. Lady Levy will remain here in the hospital wing until further notice. Now go!" Natsu chuckled a bit. The nurse fiercely reminded him of his aunt, who was also trained in medicine. Maybe this nurse had been her apprentice at one point?

Lucy and Virgo nodded their understanding of the nurse's orders, although a tad begrudgingly. They said their goodbyes to Levy and Lucy made sure Natsu followed her out. The nurse followed after them, shutting Levy's light off and closing the door. It was approaching seven o'clock.

"Good night, Princess," Virgo said as she left towards the servants' quarters.

 **oOo**

"You really think I could track him down?"

Gajeel and Juvia nodded to their colleague as they stood outside Duke Heartfilia's bedchamber.

"But you would have to come with us. You'd have to desert Baram."

Lyon nodded as he considered his options. "But I finally got some damn information out of him!"

"You mean his wife was involved?" Juvia questioned.

"Yes. She-"

"Does it really matter?" Gajeel grunted. "Because unless we're going back to Baram, then it doesn't matter."

"Okay." Lyon nodded. "Yeah, let's desert Baram and find my brother." The three nodded to one another and left the manor without so much as a word to any of the residents. Walking out the huge front doors and past the house, Gajeel caught sight of one of the windows from the corner of his eye. Turning to look at it, he realized quickly (or as quickly someone could from his distance from the house) that it was Levy, the tiny bluenette who'd somehow changed his thinking through the course of one conversation, lying in a hospital bed and facing the window with closed eyes.

Juvia, who had continued walking forward with Lyon, realized that her companion had stopped walking and was staring at the somewhat distanced house. Motioning for Lyon to wait up, Juvia walked back to Gajeel.

"Gajeel?" she questioned. Following his line of sight, Juvia also realized what he was staring at. Juvia didn't know what that Levy girl had said or done, but she knew that whatever it was had changed Gajeel - for the better. Why, whatever she'd done had finally gotten Gajeel to get the guts to desert Baram!

Juvia placed her hand on his shoulder. "Go to her." He looked up at her in confusion before frowning in dismissal. "Go talk to her. We can wait for you," Juvia insisted, this time giving him a little push. Gajeel was about to grunt in annoyance, but as he sent a quick glance to Levy again, he saw that she herself was sitting up and staring his way. Her big, brown doe eyes seemed to beckon him over, and before he knew it, Gajeel was walking to her window. Gajeel watched as she fiddled with the latch and by the time he was there, Levy was swinging the window outward.

"Gajeel, what are you doing?" Gajeel was stunned by the way she said his name. The last time she'd said it, it had been with that stupid "Black Steel" nickname of his and in complete and utter disdain. But this time, it had been said almost with friendliness. Gajeel immediately decided he liked this way better and part of him even had a small sliver of hope that he would hear her say his name with full happiness sometime in the future. He pushed that sliver away, though. This girl would never be "happy" to see him. Not with all the pain and suffering he'd caused her and everyone else. She would never forgive him, but that was okay. He didn't deserve forgiveness.

Levy noticed a frown fall onto his expression, or rather, more of a grimace than he'd already had. She reached out to him, thinking to hold his shoulder, but she hesitated. After a few seconds, she pulled her hand back in her window without doing anything. He may seem like he wouldn't hurt anyone innocent now, but he'd still hurt her and others terribly. She was, admittedly, a tad scared to reach out to him at all. "Where are you going?" she finally asked.

Gajeel hesitated to speak to her. "I - we - are leaving. We wanted to desert Baram."

"You're deserting Baram? You're not going back? You're breaking free of their chains?" Gajeel nodded, and a small grin appeared on Levy's lips. Gajeel didn't know why, but the sight of her grin sent his heart beating fast. _What the hell?_

"What're you smiling like that for?"

"I'm just glad for you. I'm happy you're not going to be trapped by Baram anymore," Levy remarked. "They've caused a lot of hurt."

Gajeel scoffed. "Don't blame Baram for what I did. It may have been their orders, but it was still me who carried them out. I mean, I tortured you without so much as a thought."

"I'm not blaming Baram, I'm just not excusing them. You did cause pain, but it was Baram who conditioned you to care little for anyone's wellbeing, and it was Baram who destroyed countries and captured countless children from them to be slaves and soldiers." Gajeel just scoffed again, putting a bit of a scowl on Levy's complexion. "Is there... Is there a particular reason you guys decided to abandon Baram now?"

Gajeel paused. Should he be telling her this? Then he decided that there was no reason she couldn't know. "Juvia, that's the woman with the blue hair, has never liked Baram and has always been against their cause. She's the reason your Heartfilia mistress is still alive. She just hasn't had the courage before to just up and abandon. Snowy, er, Lyon, doesn't necessarily hate Baram, but he wants to go look for someone. Juvia was able to convince him to leave by saying we'd help him find the guy."

"And you?"

"I..." Gajeel still didn't know exactly why he decided to leave. He just knew that Levy had something to do with it. "I don't know." He shrugged, and Levy didn't seem very satisfied, but she didn't push.

"Why were you here, anyways? I knew you here to kill Lucy in order to suade her father into giving information, but what were you looking for?"

Gajeel was conditioned not to talk about Baram's goals to anyone, especially not to a Fioran, but if he claimed to be against Baram now, then he should probably tell someone what Baram was planning. "The heirs," he began. "The lost royal families of Celestia and Koori."

Levy looked thoughtful. "If Baram kills them publicly, it will quell any hope at all of their defeat. It will be like Celestia and Koori really are dead."

Gajeel nodded. "That was the idea."

Levy suddenly looked up fiercely. "Do you know who the heirs are? Do you know who we have to protect!? It's a well guarded secret that I've been trying to find out for years and years!"

"The Celestial princess was from the Ceres family and the Kooran prince was from the Jitensha family. That's about all I know."

"Well, anyone with access to record books knows that the royal families were Ceres and Jitensha. That's really all you know? I would've thought you'd know more if you're supposed to find them."

"That's why we were here!" Gajeel pointed out. "To get more information. We thought that since the Heartfilias-"

"Are next in line for the throne, they might know any of the country's secrets. Well, I'm sure the duke would know something, but he's never mentioned anything to anyone. Did you guys not get anything from him?"

"Not until the very end. Lyon was about to tell us something about Duchess Heartfilia when I interrupted him and made him decide whether or not he would abandon with us."

"The late Duchess Heartfilia? She was dead long before I arrived..." Levy looked thoughtful, the gears in her head obviously turning. "I'll need to do some research as soon as I'm out of here. And you know nothing more about Prince Jitensha?"

"Well, I know that General Milkovich has some personal vendetta against him that only the higher-ups know the whole story of."

"That doesn't exactly help me," Levy lightly laughed. "I don't know who that is."

"Crazy psycho bitch is who she is," Gajeel told her in relation to General Milkovich, causing Levy to suddenly burst out laughing. Hearing her, Gajeel couldn't help but join in, their combined laughter ringing in the night air.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading, favoriting, and following!**

 **And an especially gracious thanks to MasterGildarts, IndigoArcher89, Ushindeshi, Sylvage, XxCelestialPrincessxX, and Larissa for reviewing!**


	12. Chapter 12

**This might be the last chapter for a while; I have to turn my laptop back in to the school tomorrow**

* * *

Ultear sighed shakily. "I really shouldn't be telling you about this, as we're enemies, but in honor of our childhood friendship, I suppose I could divulge you. Put your sword down. Both of you."

Gray looked to Erza with uncertainty, but Erza just nodded for him to drop his weapon. Gray released the magic, letting it slink back into the crevices of his being, as he let go of his weapon. Once they both had, Ultear dropped her own. She gestured for them both to sit.

"Erza, are you sure we should be spending our time like this? We really need to be grabbing Natsu and getting out," Gray asked once again.

"Do you want answers?" Erza demanded. Gray sighed and confirmed that he did, in fact, want to understand what his mother had to do with this Baramese general and how she and Erza had been friends. "Then the other things can wait. At least a little bit. Natsu is surely taking care of Lucy and any urgency we had to get back to Onibas is most likely, I'm sorry to say, too late."

"I know, Erza, but still... this just seems... out of character for you."

Erza sighed, but had to admit Gray was correct. But she was so thirsty for answers. And hey, as many people claimed, "knowledge is power". She wanted to know what had happened to her friend.

Gray had never really been curious about his past. He and his brother had been raised from babyhood by Ur. They'd always known that none of them were related by blood and that was that. Neither boy had really cared to find out their true parents. The only thing he'd ever been worried about was his mysterious power, but Ur had always told him that it was nothing to concern himself over and that he just had to make sure he was always safe, even if he had to use it.

There was only one time where he wished to know part of his or Ur's past, and that had been after an event when he was seven. But that was in his past. He didn't like to think about that time. It was a time that had lead to Ur's death.

Gray shook his head to clear it. There was a reason he hated thinking about that part of his past.

But apparently he wasn't allowed to ignore his true origins. This Ultear woman obviously knew something of them and it seemed as if they'd shared a mother.

Ultear began. "Erza... You're right. We were best friends. Inseparable, even. It was merely by chance that you were at your own home when Baram came."

"Yes. I remember having a hope that Ur would come and help me get out of Koori, since I knew my own parents would fail to do so. But..."

"But it didn't take long for Baram to clear out the slums," Ultear finished. Erza nodded as images of her past, images of the destruction of her home and the others around, seeing most of the adults in her neighborhood be killed, and seeing the invaders grab her and the other kids and throw them into a closed wagon, flooded her mind. "If it's any consolation, she did plan on going back for you. But she chose him over both of us."

Gray glared at the dark haired woman as she brought up the point that she had still failed to explain. Ultear was obviously trying to get reactions from her company, but Erza took none of her crap.

"You aren't going to get me to turn on my friend. He had no control over anything in that time. He would've been merely a baby. Now, unless you plan on telling me what you mean, Gray and I shall be taking our leave."

Ultear scowled. "Fine, fine. So, as you know, Erza, my mother was Ur Milkovich, highest commanding general of Koori other than the king himself."

"Ur ran the army?" Although now that Gray thought about it, it wasn't all that strange. After all, she'd been good at getting he and Lyon to do what they were told. Ultear seemed perturbed at Gray's interruption and gave him a curt confirmation.

Erza explained for Gray's benefit, "Koori knew they couldn't take Baram's force. The King wanted to give it the good fight anyways, but Ur urged him otherwise and convinced him to call an evacuation of the capital city. But Baram attacked before the order could be taken out. They struck the slums, where I lived, and made their way inwards."

"My mother and I were running from our home. She was heading in the general direction of yours, but then a guard from the palace caught up and stopped her, claiming that the royal family was trapped within the palace, including," Ultear paused to cast her cold, angry gaze straight into Gray's eyes. "The infant Crown Prince."

Gray's eyebrows furrowed in confusion while Erza sighed. "She went back and saved him? What makes you think..."

"That cursed power he has. Baram accidentally gave that to him in the attack."

Gray spoke up. "Are you saying..."

Ultear gave him another glare while Erza just shockingly said, "She seems to think you're Yuki Jitensha, crown prince of Koori."

Gray shook his head. "No."

"No?"

"I'm not some prince! I'm Gray Fullbuster! Son of Ur Fullbuster!"

"Gray, you are the exact same age as Koori's prince would be had he survived, your adoptive mother shares the name of the women who allegedly went to rescue the prince from the palace. It's not very substantial evidence, I will admit, but the situational evidence is there and it's the only type that there would be for such a thing. It's possible it may be true." Erza reasoned. "But what's this about his magic?"

"When Baram attacked, they were using magic of their own. They've had a fairy helping them on and off for years. Yuki - Gray, apparently - had been hit by some of it just as Mother was escaping with him, but they'd both managed to live. His body had turned the curse into a source of strength for him, and it took form in a black marking almost covering his entire left side. It had thrown part of Hades' attack right back at him, and he'd been so shocked by it that Mother had been able to escape. We've all been taught to seek out a man with that marking. We certainly weren't expecting it to not be constantly visible."

Gray was shaking. His power really had been a curse!? A curse from Baram!? From them trying to murder him as a baby!? But why hadn't it killed him!? Was that an answer they'd ever find out!?

"And I may have more information to convince you. Do you know of Deliora?" Ultear asked Gray with a hard voice.

Gray furrowed his brows again. "No, I don't. Who's Deliora?" Gray noticed Erza shudder every time the name was said. She held her face in her palms, her eyes wide and staring at the ground in horror. "Erza?"

She shook her head as she closed her eyes and composed herself again. "Deliora was... the general leading Baram's attack on our city. He... he personally came to the slums. I watched as he ruthlessly murdered all the adults and teenagers before all the younger kids, like myself, were captured for..."

Erza didn't need to finish her sentence. Ultear and Gray both understood and both had wide eyes. "Erza... You were one of those child slaves?"

"How did you escape? That's amazing! I never realized you were the child who did; I didn't even realize you were captured!"

"That's a story for another day. But much of my help came from a boy - Jellal. We were going to... We were going to escape together, get to Fiore together, grow stronger together... Take Baram down together."

Ultear burst out laughing. "Ha! Jellal as in General Jellal? So that's why- haha! After he helped you escape, they positively broke him! They pulled him from working in the camps to working for the higher ups! He was basically tortured until he became their mindless doll! If you were hoping to find and help him again, I'm sorry to say, but your friend is gone!" Ultear laughed again.

Erza had a fierce look on her face. "I will find him and I will bring him back. And that is the end of that. Tell us why Deliora matters," she demanded.

Ultear waved her hand in a bit of an uncaring way. "Whatever you say. I'll continue. After my mother received the news, she left me with Hades, or Precht, as he was still known at the time." Both Gray and Erza nodded. Precht had been the advisor to Fiore and the diplomat to the other countries. It was only after Fiore and Kasai's clash against Baram that he'd revealed his treachery and position as Baram's king. "I remember it well. She hugged me tightly and promised to return, but she never did."

"I find that hard to believe," Erza remarked while shaking her head. "Your mother loved you with all her heart. There must be some explanation."

"Yeah, well, I can't wait to hear that explanation."

Gray spoke next. "What do you mean?"

"I just want to hear her excuse for abandoning me. As soon as I see her, I'm confronting her."

Gray shook his head as memories threatened to storm through him. "You can't."

"And why not!?" Ultear snapped at him. Erza knew why, and sadness washed over her as she realized it, but she felt like Gray was the one who should tell her.

A heavily armored man, who almost looked like a demon with his armor, had arrived at their tiny house in demand of Gray. Ur had refused, of course, and told he and his brother to hide, forbidding Gray to use his power. After they had, with much arguing from both boys, she'd grabbed her sword and challenged the man to a battle. The boys had tried to sneak looks at the battle, but they'd both been scared to watch at the same time. But then they'd heard cries of pain from both parties. After everything grew silent, the boys had run downstairs only to be met with a ghastly sight. Both the strange man and Ur were dead. Ur had been killed with one of her own swords.

Lyon had been furious, blaming Gray for their mother's death and demanding answers from Gray that he didn't know. Lyon had disappeared after that and Gray spent a while wandering and questioning himself, digging deep in his mind for why the man had wanted him and why Ur had to die.

King Igneel had found him lost in a forest one day after Gray had accidentally interrupted a hunting trip. Igneel offered a home to him, and it wasn't too long after that that he was made Natsu's attendant. And Gray hadn't told anyone all the details. He'd kept those away until now.

"Because Ur's dead."

 **oOo**

"So, uh..." Lucy started as they entered her bedchambers. She gestured to one of the chairs. "Sit down and make yourself at home. I'll get something for us to snack on."

"You guys really are rich. You're manor's just as nice as my-"

"What was that, Natsu?" Lucy asked as she came back with a platter of assorted cookies that stole Natsu's attention.

"Hmm? I forget." Natsu had three chocolate chip cookies stuffed in his mouth before Lucy could even sit down. Lucy laughed, expecting as much. They hadn't actually eaten together before, but she felt like she'd already known how much he loved food.

"So how exactly does this... thing work, do you think?" Lucy asked, nibbling on a sugar cookie. When Natsu hummed his confusion, she continued. "Our dreaming thing. I mean, at first we just met in our dreams, but now... We're able to wake up in each other's reality. We've affected each other's lives. I broke you out of jail and you saved my life."

Natsu shrugged. "I dunno. It's weird. But pretty awesome, too! It's been fun!"

Lucy laughed. "Yes, it's been a lot of fun. But I still wanna know why. I asked Levy to look into it, because that girl can find just about anything out when she wants to, but all she's found so far similar to this are fairy tales."

"Fairy tales?"

"Yeah. They're a bit lesser known and haven't really been largely told in a while, but it was said that a fairy of light and life loved, well, love. And oftentimes, she'd use dreams to help couples..."

"I remember those!" Natsu burst out with a grin. "I forgot until just now, but Mom and Dad used to tell me those stories when I was little! The fairy's name was Mavis!"

"Mavis the Fairy... I don't think I've ever heard her tales, actually," Lucy remarked, a little jealous that Natsu somehow knew of them when she didn't.

"How did I forget? I could always just picture her so vividly! She has long, wavy blonde hair, pale skin, big green eyes..." Lucy and Natsu both swore they heard a quiet, excited giggle, but ignored it. "Oh yeah, and she's really short! Even by fairy standards!" They both heard a scoff of annoyance as well, but neither saw anything when they looked to the source.

"Maybe it was the wind?" Lucy offered to sate Natsu's curious and confused expression. "The manor is pretty old and can be creaky sometimes. Well anyways, when do you think you'll wake up? How long will you be here?"

Natsu shrugged again. "I'm supposed to be unconscious. Some chick we were fighting knocked me out."

"What!?" Lucy shouted. "Are you okay!? You're in the middle of a fight!?"

"Nah, my fight's done. I beat all the guys I was fighting. The chick who knocked me out was fighting Gray. After I was done with my guys I asked Gray to knock me out-"

"What!? Why!?"

"So I could come rescue you!" Natsu answered, as if it were obvious.

"How'd you know that would even work?" Lucy asked, still not believing Natsu's stupidity.

"I mean, you'd just been there while you were asleep and the first time I met you, I'd been unconscious..."

"Exactly how often are you unconscious?" Lucy asked with a laugh. Natsu just shrugged. "Well, I think you should try and wake up."

"Aww, but I wanna stay with you! You're much more fun than Erza and Gray!" Natsu pouted.

Lucy blushed. "Yeah, okay, but you've gotta escape Baram and I'm sure it'll be easier on Erza and Gray if you're awake." Natsu grumbled, but nodded.

"Well how do I do that?"

Lucy paused to think. "Uh... try closing your eyes first." Natsu listened to her direction before popping them back open.

"But wait, are you gonna be okay here?" he asked, concerned.

Lucy smiled. "I'll be fine. You've saved me, Natsu. It's time for you to get back."

Natsu groaned, but closed his eyes again. "Okay, now what?"

"Uh, concentrate on where you were. Concentrate on that room in Baram," Lucy suggested.

"What do you mean?"

"Think about how it smelled and sounded. Block out your senses here. I think that should work."

Natsu listened to her and tried to focus on what the Baram room had been like. It was hard for him to concentrate, but he knew Lucy was right; he needed to get back to Baram and escape. He stopped letting his nose smell things here, no matter how good he thought Lucy smelled. He hadn't fully acknowledged her delectable scent before. It was nice though. And in this room -her room- surrounded by it? It was amazing. How had he not noticed it before now?

Wait, he was supposed to be blocking out his senses...

But he couldn't really hear anything anymore. Nor could he feel the couch he'd been sitting on. And now Lucy's scent was gone...

He heard nothing. He felt nothing. He smelt nothing. And when he opened his eyes, he saw nothing. Everything around him was black and empty.

Natsu looked around him. There really wasn't anything. Where was he?

"You're in limbo," a bright, cheery voice told him.

 **oOo**

"Master Hades!" A woman called as she entered his throne room.

"Yes, Angel?" he responded without looking up from the map of Kasai he was studying.

Angel started. "I've got word that the knights were captured in Onibas perfectly according to plan."

"Good, good."

"Yes, the Black Sleep worked wonders," she added. The knights had been knocked out with just a whiff of the strange black powder.

"Did it? Good." He finally looked up to Angel, giving her a look she couldn't read. "That fairy really does seem trustworthy, does he not?"

"Yes, he does," Angel hesitantly agreed. "He should be; he's been assisting you for nearly 20 years."

"In fact," Hades continued. "He's told me quite a few interesting things."

Angel's eyes widened before they squinted at him. She took a small step back. "What... kinds of things?"

"Oh, things about some more curses he could give me, tactical moves, and just some more general information... Sorano Ceres."

Angel's, or Sorano's, eyes widened before she immediately tried darting to the door. Hades lifted his hand and flicked his wrist back, pulling Sorano closer to him and farther from the door. She turned around, wide eyes looking at him.

"You like that little number? The fairy gifted it to me. I essentially have hold of you with an invisible string." When Sorano started wildly swiping in front of her, Hades laughed and continued. "Oh, there's not a real invisible string. You're trapped. You can't escape."

Sorano cursed. "I didn't think I could spend too much more time here. I should've escaped weeks ago."

"But you got greedy for information," Hades pointed out with a laugh. "Now, since you've been taking in information and planning on going to Kings Dreyar and Dragneel with it, I think it's only fair for you to give up some information of your own."

Sorano viciously shook her head. "I will never tell you about my sister," she told him vehemently. "Besides, why do you think I even know anything about her whereabouts? I was captured when Baram attacked and she wasn't."

Hades chuckled. "Oh, that may be true, but I'm sure your father had a plan in place for emergencies for where you two would escape to and whom you would escape with. In fact, I don't remember ever beheading your mother like I did him. I do believe that answers one of my questions." Hades smirked cockily, knowing he'd backed the woman into a corner. He pointed a dagger at her throat. "Now, are you going to tell me where your sister and mother are or are we going to do this the hard way?"

Sorano glared fiercely. "I'll never tell you where Yukino and Mama are."

The woman screamed as the dagger was buried in her shoulder.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading and thank you for being patient with me ^_^**

 **And a very special thanks to Ushindeshi, IndigoArcher89, MasterGildarts, and xLonely Soldierx for the reviews!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Alright, I bitched about this on tumblr a couple months back, but I had gotten a decent smartphone that I should've been able to use the app on and post chapters throughout the summer with, except the app is dumb and deleted the second half of this chapter. I've rewritten it, I still think the original version was far superior, but I can't remember how it was like at all and I just wanna get this out here.**

* * *

Lucy squeaked as Natsu's body fell off the couch and to the floor.

"So he fell asleep?" She had to wonder why he was still here, then. Had her body stayed in Baram after she'd left? Did that mean she had two bodies now!? How did that even work!?

As she continued wondering about whatever weird situation she and Natsu had ended up in, she attempted to drag Natsu back up onto the couch to make him more comfortable. It was proving to be quite the difficult task, however. _He's so heavy! All these muscles!_

Not that she was going to complain about them. _They're quite nice..._ The random thought came and painted her face red as she realized how nice the bicep under her hand felt. His tunic was even riding up an almost too-ridiculous-to-happen amount and showed off a good amount of the abs he could boast.

 _OKAY THAT'S ENOUGH OF THAT_. Lucy thought frantically as her blush only grew. She'd finally managed to push Natsu on the couch and quickly threw a blanket over him.

She went back to her own bed. It was getting late and she'd had a long day, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to go to sleep, although she ended up reading for nearly an hour before finally turning in. "It'll be kinda weird not seeing Natsu this time," she laughed, knowing that Natsu would be in Baram, working to escape, rather than meeting her in her dreams.

 **oOo**

Natsu looked around him in confusion. "Who's there!?" he shouted at the darkness.

There was a giggle, and then a shiny flicker of light ahead of him. Before the flicker had totally died, a burst of sparkles appeared in the same spot, and they fell to reveal the form of a girl. A girl with wings. _A fairy._

"Sorry about that," she said with another giggle.

"Mavis-" Natsu started. "You're Mavis the fairy! That one with the dreams!" Mavis nodded as she laughed again. "You look exactly like I always imagined you!"

"That's because we've met before," she told him with a smile.

"What!?" Natsu shook his head. "No, I haven't! I've only heard about you from Dad's stories!"

Mavis chuckled. "Yes, that may be what your current memories tell you, but our meeting is in here. Locked away. You could only remember my image when you were told the stories."

"Huh?" Natsu was extremely confused. He hadn't grasped a bit of what Mavis had just told him.

More giggles. "You aren't allowed to know."

"Know what!?"

"The total truth of your existence. And that girl's."

"Lucy? What does she have to do with anything?" Everything Mavis said made less and less sense.

Mavis smirked. "Everything. But no more questions about that. You aren't really supposed to know."

Natsu shook his head. This fairy was confusing. "Well, what did you mean before? I'm 'in limbo'? What's limbo?"

"It means you're in between your bodies," she answered simply.

That still made little sense to Natsu. "Bodies?"

Mavis sighed. "Right now, you have two bodies. Your first one, stuck in Baram, and your second one, with her."

"But why do I have two?"

"It's not a permanent thing. But she needed help, so with a bit of my magic, you were able to go to her with a second body, a projection of your first one, we'll say." When Natsu still looked befuddled, she laughed again. "Don't worry too much about it. But for right now, you're stuck here."

"Why's that?"

"Because your true body is unconscious and your mind has already left the projection." Natsu was getting more dazed with just about every word this fairy uttered, and seeing that, she sighed. "You can't wake up because your body is unconscious. You have to wait until you wake up naturally or one of your companions forces you awake."

"Oh. Man, it's so boring here, though! There's nothing here! If I knew I wouldn't be able to wake up, I woulda just stayed with Lucy!" Natsu complained. "I wanted to stay with her, anyways, but she told me I should try and go back to Baram..."

Mavis smiled at his mentions of the woman. "Yes, a noble idea of hers, but not a successful one."

There was a pause as Natsu pondered all Mavis had told him.

"Why are you here?" Natsu finally asked. "What are you doing in my head?"

Mavis wagged a finger at him. "Ah ah ah! That's a question you can't ask, remember?"

Natsu thought back. "Wait, so you being here has something to do with the 'truth of my existence'?"

"You're curious, that's for sure." Mavis sighed. "But I can't tell you anything."

"Why not?"

"Well, one, it would be breaking the rules. I'd suffer severe consequences, because I'm already toeing the line with a lot of the things I'm doing, like just being here and talking to you. And two, it might be dangerous for you. If you were suddenly aware of what you don't know, then it could confuse you and distract you from this l-" Mavis coughed, obviously having let something slip, but Natsu didn't know what that was. After composing herself, Mavis continued. "You could get confused in battle and get hurt. Random... things would start popping in your head at random times. Things that you can't remember happening, I could say."

"Oh, like the conversations!" Natsu brought up.

Mavis' eyes widened. "'Conversations'?" she questioned hesitantly.

"Yeah! Pretty much since I met Lucy, these random conversations between us that I don't remember happening have been going through my head!" he told the fairy. "But for the most part, they all seem so real!"

"Oh no," Mavis said in a small voice. "You weren't supposed to- I thought- Tell me, has she been remembering these strange conversations!?"

Natsu shrugged. "Dunno. If she has, she hasn't said anything."

Mavis started pacing about in a bit of a panic. "It said- Oh no, Zera's gonna have my head!"

And then she was gone with a shiny blip.

"Mavis?" Natsu called. "Where'd you go?" Why had she freaked out like that? What was the issue with the random conversations? Did they have something to do with 'the truth of his existence'?

And even if they didn't, what the heck did that mean, 'the truth of his existence'?

All Natsu knew was that he was confused.

 **oOo**

"What!?" Ultear's eyes were wide and horrified. "Mama... Ur is dead!?" She glared at Gray. "How!?" Her gaze cast towards Erza. "Did you know!?"

Erza stated calmly, "It is quite upsetting to realize, and I do not know the details, but I knew right from meeting Gray that his mother was dead."

Ultear hissed. "She's not his mother!" Glaring back at him and grabbing his shoulders roughly, she continued. "How did it happen!? How!?"

"I- Some guy came to our house and they ended up killing each other!"

"'Some... guy'?" Ultear looked thoughtful for a second before she was yelling again. "What did he look like!?"

"I don't know! He had a bunch of armor on!"

Hearing that, Erza thought about a point Ultear had mentioned earlier. "What did the armor look like?" Erza asked. "Black, horned, and simply demonic?" Ultear wanted to know the same, and Gray could see sadness behind both their eyes that made him not want to answer. But he had to.

"Yes..."

Erza sighed and let her head drop while Ultear seemed to flare up as her eyes widened.

"It was you! Again! Everything was you!" she screamed. "Deliora was after you! When he never reported back, we had to assume Ur had killed him, but they killed each other!?" Ultear looked positively psychotic during her screaming, with eyes wide, wild, and crazy.

Erza placed her hand on Ultear's shoulder in an attempt to calm her down. "Ultear, I still find it impossible to believe that your mother left you on purpose. There must be something that we don't know!"

Ultear ignored Erza's "Everything is your fault! It's your fault she abandoned me and your fault she's dead now!"

That last sentence brought forth more bad memories for Gray. Memories of his brother shouting the exact thing at him, shouting that it was Gray's fault she was dead.

"Shut up!" he shouted before he realized what he was doing. "You sound just like my brother!" he added, ignoring the fact that Ultear had no clue who Lyon was.

Ultear furrowed her brow. "Your brother?"

"Lyon," Gray answered.

"Why does that name sound familiar?" She was calm again at first, but then she was right back to crazy with a repeated version of her question. "Why does that name sound familiar!?"

Erza attempted to calm her down again. "I don't know!" Gray shouted.

Ultear suddenly gasped. "What did you say your last name was!? What was it!?"

"Fullbuster?" Gray answered with confusion. What was her problem now?

"Fullbuster!" she shouted in anger, making Gray flinch a bit. "Lyon Fullbuster! He had to have known! That traitor! He could've told us where you were this whole time!"

"Wait, what?" Gray questioned. "How do you know Lyon!? He's not-"

"A Baramese soldier!? Why yes, yes he is," Ultear responded with a smirk, taking pleasure in revealing to these two that the people they had been close to were now working for Baram. Then her anger returned. "But all this time! He knew the name you were going by! He knew where you'd escaped to! And he never told us! That's like betraying his kingdom!"

Gray glared at her. "No. Baram isn't his kingdom, no! He can't be aligned with you guys!"

"Well he is. In fact, he was sent on a mission to go kill one of Fiore's nobles and has probably done so by now!" Ultear continued.

"What!? Your brother was part of the group sent to assassinate Lucy!?" Erza asked, directed to Gray.

"If by 'Lucy', you mean the Heartfilia daughter, then yes. It seems you know her." she smirked. "I hope you said your goodbyes."

Gray and Erza smirked right back at her. "You shouldn't worry, because she's not going to die by your men."

"And why not?"

Erza briefly glanced at Natsu's unconscious body, only hoping that she was correct in her next statement. "Because we have someone there right now to save her. He can defeat any foe when it comes to the people he loves."

Ultear gave a haughty laugh. "My soldiers knows how to kill."

 **oOo**

Gajeel gave out another rumbling laugh as they both rolled to a quiet. "She's Ultear Milkovich," he told Levy, "and all I really know about her is that she's insane, that she came from Koori, and that she's been groomed for combat since Koori was attacked and the kids were all captured. Why she was picked, I don't know, but I remember seeing her sometimes, acting like she was better than us, that dick..."

Levy could tell he didn't want to keep talking about his childhood again, so she brought the conversation away from it a bit. "So General Ultear Milkovich... Can't say I've ever heard of her..."

Gajeel tried to listen as she continued to chatter about having to research more as soon as possible, but he was distracted by her. The waves framing her face that were as blue as the ocean Baram bordered, the fiercely determined look in her deep brown eyes that struck a chord in him and made his heart thump, and those lips. Those lips looked so soft. How would they feel to touch? They were moving as she spoke, and Gajeel was mesmerized.

"Gajeel?"

The soft, concerned voice reached through the haze he'd been in, and guilt suddenly swarmed his entire being. He can't be thinking that about her! What was wrong with him!? Only a few hours ago, he'd been beating her with a club!

"Gajeel!" Levy called again.

Gajeel grunted, indicating for her to talk.

"It just seems like your companions are becoming a bit impatient." Levy gestured out the window, where Lyon was looking obviously huffy and Juvia seemed to be trying to abate his annoyance.

"I... better go," he commented simply, turning away from her.

"Gajeel!" she called again, sounding a bit frustrated. He glanced back briefly, knowing if he looked at her for two long, he'd just get swarmed with thoughts again. Thoughts he wasn't allowed to have about her. "Uh... Goodbye," she told him.

He didn't respond and walked away.

Levy glared after him in a mix of confusion, irritation, and anger. Who did he think he was, suddenly ignoring her!? Why wouldn't he say goodbye?

Or perhaps the better question was why she wanted to say goodbye. For all intents and purposes, she should hate him! He'd murdered a childhood friend, beat herself with no restraint, had _planned_ to kill Lucy, the person closest to Levy in the entire world.

 _But he was merely following orders._ Another part of her reminded her.

 _That doesn't matter! There were still his actions!_ She told herself.

 _He grew up in Baram! He's been groomed since he was a little kid to do these horrible things!_

 _He can't be excused._ She retorted back.

 _So don't excuse him. Accept him despite it. He's trying to leave Baram behind now, apparently. Recognize that he's trying to move on._

Levy sighed, knowing which of her sides had won out. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to trust this man so readily, but everything she had figured out about him just screamed at her to give him the chance to change.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **A special thank you to Ushindeshi, Mrs I don't care, xHallowedFangirlx, Master Gildarts, AmaterasuX793, xLonely Soldierx, IndigoArcher89, Guest, , and biscoiju for leaving reviews all that time ago on chapter 12!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Sorry this took so long; I've been busy**

* * *

"And our companion knows how to protect." Instead of letting Ultear respond to that, Erza continued. "Ultear, I have one more question. What was the black powder your men used on us?"

"Just a gift from a fairy," she said.

"A fairy," Gray repeated incredulously, although he shouldn't have been so. He had proof of Baram's connections with magic, after all.

"Yes. The kingdom of Baram still has magic on our side," she said proudly. Erza opened her mouth to speak again, but Ultear stopped her. "Nope, not getting any more! I can't give you any details! Just enough to make you scared!"

"Erza, we should be going now," Gray pointed out to his comrade. If they stayed much longer, he was sure his past would come up again, and he was sick of this guilt trip from a woman who'd probably murdered people before! Even if it was his fault for Ur's death, he didn't need her telling him that!

Erza sighed. "Yes, as enlightening as this has been, we must bid you adieu, old friend."

Ultear seethed. "No you must not! We aren't finished here!"

"What more have we to discuss?" Erza asked calmly. When Ultear was silent but continued glaring, Erza continued. "That's what I thought. I have no desire to stay and see how twisted and, frankly, insane my old friend has become, and it's clear that you won't be letting me help you."

"'Help' me!?" Ultear laughed. "You want to help me? Help me kill him!" Ultear darted to her sword and immediately thrust it towards Gray, who was also quick enough with his own reflexes to block the attack.

"Guess the battle's resumed, then?" Gray asked rhetorically. Erza didn't react and merely held a hard look on her face. She couldn't face her emotions right now. She just had to focus on leaving now. Once she was sure Natsu and Gray and Lucy were all safe... then she could come back and get Ultear and Jellal to listen to her. She had to get them to listen to her. She had to save them, but she couldn't right now.

Ultear was a tough opponent. Erza and Gray already knew that. But against the two of them, she was outmatched.

"I'm not letting you leave! You're my prisoners! I've worked all these years to capture that bastard!" she screamed.

Gray rolled his eyes at her, sick of her insane mood swings. Erza's expression didn't change much, but she did utter, "Ultear, I swear I'll come back to rescue you. I swear I'll liberate you and Jellal."

Ultear glared at Erza's words and especially at hearing Jellal's name. She didn't need to be "rescued" and Jellal couldn't be. Not like he was now. "Just shut up!" she yelled. "I should be bringing you to Baram's side, not you talking about bringing me to your's!"

 **oOo**

It didn't take too much longer for Gray and Erza to finish with Ultear. After fighting for a while, Gray had ended up behind her and forgotten, and so he had been able to sneak up and knock her out. As they sat Ultear's unconscious body up against a wall, Gray couldn't help but notice the look on his companion's face. Erza seemed to have sadness, regret, worry, and anger all showing on her face at once. Gray didn't know how to console her, so he simply rested a hand on her shoulder. She looked to him with an unreadable expression before looking up at the ceiling.

"How did Baram do all this, Gray? Ultear and Jellal..."

"They were your friends, you said? Ultear was from when you lived in Koori and you met Jellal after being captured, right?"

Erza nodded. "They were both so nice, some of the sweetest people you could ever meet. As for Ur abandoning her... There's something we're missing. And how did they get Jellal to be so loyal to them?" Gray could tell that Erza was simply rambling her thoughts, not really looking for answers from him. "I just..."

"We need to worry about them another day. Right now, we just need to grab Natsu and get back to Fiore," Gray reminded her. He was never good at these kinds of conversations, so he didn't think he approached it the right way, but he didn't know what else to do. Erza looked to him and nodded. She couldn't just focus on her old friends; she had new friends and family that she had to take care of. Friends and family she had to protect from the forces of Baram while she still could.

"Can you wake him up? If we can't, then you'll have to help me carry him."

Gray approached the unconscious Natsu and started slapping him. When that didn't work, Erza tried as well, still bearing no response from the pinkette. "We'll have to do it. When he's out cold like this, it's the only way to guarantee he'll get off his lazy butt." Erza nodded again, and Gray grinned, grabbing the barrel of beer. He positioned it above Natsu's head and opened the tap.

After just a few seconds of being soaked with beer, Natsu started spluttering and yelled out "FUCKING HELL!" Natsu kicked the barrel only to see Gray laughing. "What the hell, Gray!? Would you stop doing that!?"

Gray shrugged. "Dumping water on your head's the easiest way to wake you up when you're out."

"Damn it, Gray, now I'm gonna smell like beer all day!"

"How's Lucy?" Erza questioned, interrupting their banter.

"She's safe now," Natsu replied, with a grin. "And the group has been stopped, I think."

Erza and Gray both gave sighs of relief, but didn't ask anything else. They needed to get moving. "Let's go," Erza ordered. Not wanting to argue, the boys followed her out.

"Hey, let's find out weapons," Natsu suggested, not forgetting that his Fire Dragon was still here somewhere, before running off. Gray didn't wait for Erza's approval before also heading off in search of his Icecalibur. Erza grumbled, but started looking as well. Admittedly, she didn't wish to part with her Wings.

"Guys, in here!" Gray called from one of the rooms he'd visited. "I found our swords!"

"Great!" Natsu grinned as he darted in, grabbing his weapon and immediately using it to slice another flag of Baram in half. "Now, let's get out of here!"

They left the building with ease. They'd already taken care of the few guards and soldiers there, and no one from Baram had any idea yet that the fortress needed backup. Outside, with the greatest of luck, there'd been a stable where most likely Ultear and Azuma's horses were as well as Happy and the rest of the group's steeds. Baram had apparently taken their horses for their own use.

Happy had reared in excitement when he saw his master, obviously ecstatic to see Natsu alive and well. Natsu had grinned and immediately darted to the horse and wrapped his arms around him. "Hey Buddy, you miss me!? You didn't think we'd stay captured, did you?" Happy nuzzled into Natsu's hug with a neigh that seemed to say "No way!"

Gray smacked Natsu. The pinkette looked up, seeing his rival and Erza already saddled and on their own horses. Natsu nodded and started saddling Happy. "Yes!" Erza suddenly shouted. The boys glanced back over to her to see one of her strawberry rolls from earlier stuffed in her mouth. "They didn't touch the croissants!" she exclaimed with a grin. "Although... They are a bit stale..."

The boys laughed, and as Natsu finished buckling Happy and climbed on, they rode away from the Baramese fortress.

"So, uh..." Gray started. "Where are we going?"

"Duh," Natsu rolled his eyes. "Back to Kasai. Where else?"

Gray and Erza groaned at his stupidity. "I meant," Gray continued. "Which way _is_ Kasai?"

"Oh." Natsu shrugged. "Dunno."

The group looked around them for any clues. They were surrounded by wilderness and ruins of a long-abandoned town, but they couldn't see anything in the distance that they recognized as Fiore or Kasai. "Search the ruins!" Erza commanded. "I don't think we'll find anything, but perhaps there will be a remnant of a map or marker of some sort!"

And so the three searched through the rubble and even went back into the fortress, but to no avail. They searched for a good half hour or so, everyone knowing it was a lost cause but no one knowing what else they could do without accidentally heading deeper into Baram. The only thing Natsu had managed to find were clusters of dandelions, some of which he pocketed, for the next time he saw Lucy, knowing how much she wanted to see the flowers now. Just when Natsu was about to shout to his comrades that they weren't going to find anything, he heard a vaguely familiar voice.

"Hello again," the voice said.

Natsu whipped around, searching for the source. "Uh... Mavis?" he guessed.

A giggle. "Yup, that's me! Sorry I ran off so abruptly! I had something... come up. I'm still not done taking care of it, yet, but I sensed you and your friends needed help."

"Uh, yeah... Where are you!?"

"Natsu, who the hell are you talking to!?" Gray asked, annoyed, as he came up behind the pinkette.

"Uh... would you believe me if I said I was talking to a fairy?" Natsu tentatively replied.

Gray rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, a fairy. Why do those things keep coming up today? Stop playing around." He started walking away before they heard a giggle resound, and with it, came a magic circle beside Natsu. When the circle disappeared, the small fairy was left in its wake. "That's- That's- You have a fucking fairy!? Uh, Erza, might wanna come over here!" Gray shouted as he stared, stunned, at Mavis.

"Weren't you bigger?" Natsu asked. "I swear you were, like, people-sized in that dream thing."

"Just how many women are you meeting in your dreams!?" Gray was aghast. What the hell was his prince getting into!?

"What do you need, Gray? What's th-" Erza saw the fairy and stopped. "A fairy. Huh," she responded, holding a finger out in lieu of her hand for Mavis to shake.

"Mavis Vermillion, fairy of light and life, at your service," she introduced herself with a curtsy and a pirouette. "I didn't plan on revealing myself to more than him," she admitted, gesturing to Natsu, "but I suppose it was inevitable. And I was bigger in your dream because I chose to be. But it's much easier to be of a smaller size when in the mortal realm."

"Natsu? Explanation?"

Natsu shrugged. "Dunno, she won't really tell me much. I kinda met her in another dream and she said something about the 'truth of my existence' or something and that I can't know about it yet."

"You aren't supposed to know," Mavis reiterated. "Or we'll be in trouble. Erza and Gray, it's a pleasure to formally meet you," Mavis said with a smile. "The powerful swordswoman and the blessed knight."

"How do you know our names!?" Gray and Erza asked simultaneously, both shocked and extremely perplexed by the being.

Mavis giggled. "I've been watching over him," she told them with another gesture to Natsu. "I know a lot about him and the people around him. And I shall allow only a few questions right now. You need to be leaving Baram, and I can help with that."

"Natsu said you were in one of his dreams? Can you read his mind?" Erza asked. This fairy had to be behind Natsu's dreams with Lucy, and Erza wanted to know more about how she did it. Was it a form of magic? Well, of course it had to be. This Mavis girl was a fairy. She'd been incredulous when Ultear told them that a fairy was helping Baram, but if this Mavis had been helping Natsu, then she supposed one could be aiding their enemies, as well.

"I cannot read his mind," she replied, "Or anyone's, for that matter. I've simply been watching him. I can, however, enter his subconscious when he's asleep and watch and affect his dreams. That's why I could speak with him during his unconsciousness and why, as I'm sure you've figured out, Erza, I could bring Natsu and Lucy together through their dreams."

"But why?" Natsu asked, having a question of his own. "Not that I'm complaining," he quickly added.

Mavis smiled apologetically. "There's a reason, but..."

Natsu groaned. "But I can't know. Will you eventually explain this all to me?"

"Perhaps," Mavis hesitantly told him. "But its dangerous for you to know. It would be toying with the rules of Life and Death themselves and they don't take kindly to that." Everyone other than the fairy just shook their heads in confusion.

"What the hell have you gotten mixed up with, Natsu?" Gray queried rhetorically.

"It wasn't supposed to be this complicated," Mavis told them in response to Gray. "But the rules of Life and Death are hard to get around and I couldn't just let this go by without doing something. He'd made a promise." Mavis looked to Natsu again when she said that, directly in his eyes, but she seemed to be looking not _at_ Natsu, but through him to something else. "I had to fulfill it."

 **oOo**

Lucy drifted out of the conscious realm and into the dream world. What would be awaiting her there? Natsu was supposed to be escaping Baram, so he shouldn't be there with her. The scene around her finally formed and her blurred vision became clear. She was staring up at a simple white ceiling and her chest was heaving. She felt all warm and tingly.

Lucy tried glancing around her, but her eyes didn't want to move. Maybe she was just more tired than she'd realized? She instead studied the things she _could_ see. It wasn't much. She could see a simple, but elegant pattern carved around the edge of the ceiling and she could see... a tuft of pink hair in her periphery vision. Natsu _was_ here? What was he doing sleeping? Lucy tried opening her mouth to ask him, but still could not move. All she felt was a weird tingling in her jaw as she tried to open it and in her lungs as she tried to use their air to voice her concerns.

The blonde started trying to take in other information about her setting. She could feel that she was on a bed, and she had the sheets wrapped around her up to her breasts. Was she even wearing anything underneath the sheets? Lucy could've blushed fiercely at the realization that she was basically bare. Why was she naked? Was Natsu bare, as well? Natsu also seemed to be breathing heavily, as she had been. She still couldn't see much of him, but she could tell that he was most likely naked. Lucy wanted to shriek, wanted to dart up out of the bed, but she still could not. Why couldn't she move her body? It felt like none of her muscles existed anymore, and all she could feel was that tingle in the nerves she did try to use.

And then she _was_ moving, but not by her own power. Her body was turning, seemingly, by itself, and she could no longer see Natsu at all. She was turned away from him. She felt Natsu shifting himself in the bed and then felt his arms surround her. His nose was buried in her hair and his arms were wrapped around her like he would never let go again. It was odd, but there was a sense of comfort that washed over her.

They were like that for a good while. The room was completely silent save for their own sighs. Lucy had felt her mouth open hesitantly and then close again with a soft sigh, but still not under her own volition. Natsu's breathing sounded irregular. Every once in a while, she heard him take gasping breaths while he nuzzled into her neck and then felt him move back up and sniff at her hair. He'd take long, deep sighs.

After a particularly long breath of Natsu's that seemed to be taking in her scent like he was trying to memorize it, Lucy suddenly felt her face scrunch, her throat choke, and her eyes grow wet. She gave a small cough of a sob. She was crying? Why was she crying?

Behind her, she heard Natsu's familiar voice. "Hey, don't cry. It's okay..." He tried to speak in a comforting tone, but Lucy could read him like a book. Natsu was just as scared as she seemed to be, and the nearly-crying lilt his hoarse voice held didn't help his case.

"I tried not to. I know we said no crying, but I can't!"

"I don't think I can, either-" Natsu said, his own throat choking off his last word as tears threatened to fall from his eyes.

"I'm sorry. I'm just so afraid. What if you don't come back? What if you die in battle?" Lucy's voice was sobbing and sounded like it was getting more frantic with every word. "I need you. Don't leave me."

 _Battle? What battle? What are we talking about? Why am I so worried to the point of crying?_ Sure, she was worried about Natsu's safety, him being captured by Baram and all, but not like this. They were talking as if he was going off to war.

"Hey, don't worry. Have I ever been one to lose?"

 _Well that was a Natsu statement if I've ever heard one._ But it still didn't sound right. It was lacking his confidence. Why was Natsu so fearful, too? It wasn't like him, this wasn't right!

"You know as well as I do that this battle is going to be more dangerous than any you've ever fought. Koori and Celestia both completely disappeared because of Baram."

"But Fiore is more powerful than Koori and Celestia ever were. We have more of a fighting chance against Baram. Especially since we'll be fighting alongside Kasai."

Lucy was trying to wrap her head around this. She and Natsu were making it sound like the Kooran and Celestian tragedies were recent, and like they were about to go into war against Baram! It was looming, of course, but they were making it sound like it was happening tomorrow!

"I know we're powerful, but every war has casualties. You could very easily be one of them, being on the front lines..."

War!? Front lines!?

"If I die, it will have been to protect you."

 _Death!?_

The thought of Natsu dying seemed to freeze her frantic thoughts and Lucy suddenly found herself with a headache, a pulsing one in the back of her head, like something was trying to push through.

"I know... But..."

She felt Natsu take one of her hands within one of his own as his other arm squeezed her closer against him. "I promise I'll always come back to you." He said it so sincerely, like he would do anything possible to fulfill that promise. "Even if I die in this battle, or some other one, I promise to find you again. We'll meet up again in that forest you were always enchanted by, and we'll search for fairies and adventures, like always." Lucy turned in his arms so that she was facing him and felt Natsu lovingly caress her cheek with his hand.

"You promise?" she asked, even though they both knew that Natsu couldn't promise such a thing. The tears were still spilling down her cheeks.

"I promise." And they shared a kiss.

* * *

 ** _contemplating discontinuing this; this project was too big of an endeavor T-T_**


	15. Sorry

**Hey you guys. So you mighta seen the new summary, in that, well, there isn't a summary anymore. I'm finally going to formally discontinue this story. I'm sorry, I know there were a lot of people who loved it, but I'm just really not that good at writing long overarching stories and this was too big of a project to take on and while I did have a lot of hopes for it, I haven't touched it in a really long time and honestly don't feel the need to again.**

 **And I guess as an apology, the following are bits and pieces that I was going to include at some point in the story,** **one way or another. You'll get some idea of where I was going with this story, and hey, if any of y'all wanna take this concept and run with it, feel free!**

 **I had like four more full chapters that I wrote, but unfortunately, the only copies I had were saved on , and I didn't make sure to keep them saved and they were automatically deleted. There was some good stuff in there, too, that I would've included in this little thing below. Whoops. Keep your files in multiple places, folks.**

* * *

 **Lucy Confession**

"Duke Jinelle. His family owns many of the railways, which we could easily use to expand our wealth."

Lucy sighed. "I'm sorry, Father."

Jude's eyes shot up from the papers he'd been looking at on his desk. "What!?" He asked, confusedly and angrily.

"I'm sorry, but I'm done with these engagement interviews," Lucy said calmly, despite the completely uncalm and chaotic storm of butterflies and thunder raging within her. "I'm not going to marry someone just so you can become richer."

Jude stood from his desk, knocking his chair over to crash into a nearby vase. "You will marry whoever I say you'll marry! You are an asset of my estate and I will use you as such!"

"That's just the thing!" Lucy's fists clenched at her sides, needing something to ground herself so she wouldn't explode. Blowing up would do nothing to help her. "I'm not part of your property. I am your daughter; a human being who gets to make choices."

"Well, let's hear it, then! Who do you want to marry?" Jude didn't really care about her answer, but he was curious to see what whelp she was interested in. "What's wrong with the dukes and lords you've seen?"

"I..." Lucy started. "I want to marry someone I love!"

"Ha!" Jude laughed haughtily. "I didn't love your mother when we were betrothed, but let's tease this silly notion for a second! What makes you say that you won't fall in love with Duke Jinelle?"

"Because-" Lucy started out strong, but then she had to pause and think. What did make her say that? Perhaps this Duke Jinelle was someone she could fall in love with. Sure, that wasn't really the point, since it was the idea of arranged marriage that she was fighting, but why couldn't she fall in love with one of these dukes her father wanted her with?

An image of Natsu's bright grin flashed in her mind.

And Lucy realized why she couldn't fall in love with any of these dukes.

"Because I'm already in love with someone else!"

 **Gildarts and Natsu**

"Natsu, come with me," Gildarts told the boy.

"Yeah, okay," Natsu gave a wave goodbye to Lucy before following his long-time idol. They didn't go far, stopping just in the hall outside the room. "What's up?"

"Every day, you remind me even more of another young lad. He'd been in the army during the first Baram Wars."

"How come I remind you of him?"

"He was about your age when he..." Gildarts paused. "You have his spunk, his excitement, his confidence. He'd always been so lively and with a fiery personality. He was eager for fights, just like you. Of course, he wasn't particularly happy about the Baram Wars..." Gildarts paused, smiling at the memories of the boy, despite how those memories ended. Gildarts looked up to Natsu again. "You know, you kinda look like him, too. I never really realized that." With a soft smile, he studied the features of Natsu, who looked thoroughly confused. "Ha, yeah, you really do. If your hair was green and a bit less spiky, you'd be the spitting image. And you act the exact same with your lady," he added, causing Natsu to blush furiously at the implication. "Lucy, right? She looks quite a bit like her, even. Her hair had been browner, though." Gildarts laughed. "Funny how the world works sometimes, isn't it?"

"Why are you telling me?" Natsu asked, tilting his head to the side.

"I don't know," Gildarts admitted. "But I couldn't save him and I want to make sure I save you. Of course, you being the crown prince will probably help keep you off the front lines, but I want you to be able to live your life. August didn't get to. He had a girl that he never got to see again - they had to get married via a letter through the mail while we were on the front lines. She was pregnant. She found out and told August about a month after he left. He never even got to meet his child." Natsu was struck with an unending sadness that he didn't understand at the news. Sure, he was empathetic, but the way he felt, it was almost like he himself was feeling the pain of this 'August' man that Gildarts knew. He wanted to know more.

"What... What happened to his wife?" Natsu asked tentatively.

"Passed away. Only a few months after August had. I never got to apologize to her," Gildarts admitted.

Natsu felt another pang of intense grief and even felt his eyes start to well up. Why was he so depressed over the late August and his mysterious wife? Natsu had never met either of them, never even known about either of them!

"Don't be stupid, Natsu," Gildarts reiterated, interrupting Natsu's thoughts. "I don't want to have to hear that you were killed in a battle."

"Hey, I've never been one to lose! You know that!" Natsu reminded Gildarts.

"Don't get cocky, either," Gildarts told him roughly. "Being cocky will get you into trouble. My being cocky is what got that entire troop killed." Natsu didn't want to press, but he was curious about what Gildarts had done. Gildarts saw his wondering and sighed. "Makarov ordered us to stay where we were because we didn't have any idea what Baram's next move was going to be. We had a few men behind their lines to gather intel, but they hadn't gotten back to us yet. I didn't listen. I didn't wait. I was certain that Baram was going to be moving to another location, and I thought we could catch them by surprise, so I sent August's troop over there." Gildarts paused with a sigh. "Baram anticipated that. They ambushed them. The entirety of that troop was slaughtered. A lot of good men were killed, August included. I regret every one of those deaths. They died fighting; they took out a lot of the ambushers from Baram, but they all succumbed in the end."

Natsu nodded his head in memorial.

 **Mavis' Debate**

A Fairy of Light, Life, and Love, approached the formless Fae standing in this void. Depending upon how this went, the Fae would turn into one of its two forms: Life or Death. "Listen, I need a favor..."

"Mavis, I've done you many favors," the corporeal being replied.

"You see that young man there?" Mavis gestured to the Fae's Watchful Eye, an orb that displayed any scene it wished. Right now, at Mavis's words, it showed the young man she wanted to show the Fae. "You can't let him die. Life has to protect him from Death."

The Fae showed no reaction and no emotion. "Death will take him on the battlefield."

"But I gave him a gift! He has to live!" Mavis insisted.

"What gift? And why?"

"When he was just a boy, he saved me from being caught by hunters. I told him that if he were to make a promise from the bottom of his heart, then it would certainly come true."

"You've involved me too much with that gift. Stop giving it to humanity."

Mavis nodded her understanding. She did give that gift to people quite frequently, and it had oftentimes brought her to this void. "I will, but please. Just look at this one last case."

The Fae of Life and Death touched the orb in front of it and watched both the scene Mavis spoke of and the promise that the man had made.

"He truly did love her. But Death cannot let him live."

Mavis' heart dropped. "There is no way that he can live and return to her?"

"No."

Mavis searched through her mind for a solution. No, she had to reunite them! They were more truly in love with each other than any couple she'd seen for centuries. She had to advocate for their happiness! "What if Life lets him live again?" She already knew the Fae's answer, but she was desperate.

"No. You know that humans cannot be brought into life again after Death has taken them. These two cannot be an exception. Death is due to take them."

"'Them'?"

"Yes, 'them'. The man will die on the battlefield and the woman will die within her next year."

"Why will Death take her?"

"Life has given another breath into her, but Death will take both her and the unborn child."

"So Death will take both the man and the woman? As well as their babe?"

"Yes."

It was quite unfortunate, really, that all three would die, but perhaps Mavis could use this. Perhaps she could convince Life to reunite them in a different way. "May I please speak with Life? I'd like to make an arrangement. It should not go against Death's laws."

The formless figure pondered for a second. Then, just as Mavis hoped, it became the form of a woman with butterfly wings and flowered horns. "What will you suggest?" A more feminine voice than before spoke.

"What if you were to give their breaths to someone else?"

"I do not understand."

"Instead of breathing a new life into two wombs, I want you to reuse these two's breaths." Mavis gestured to the orb, where an image of the couple embracing was waiting.

"You are speaking of reincarnation."

"Yes."

"Death does not like reincarnation."

"But it is not against Death's laws." Mavis pointed out. The fairy could tell that Life wanted to comply to the request. Life liked to do anything that would let love prevail. Love created life, after all.

"Death does not like for me to do it often."

"The last time you did it was five hundred years ago."

"Time does not exist for us," Life smiled to Mavis, who returned the grin cheerily. "but I will do it."

"Thank you. You know how much I hate it when my gifts go unfulfilled. And if you could do it right away, then that would be great. I don't want to wait too long to see this play out."

"You do realize that they will not have their memories? Nor is there a way to guarantee they will meet again."

"Don't worry," Mavis smiled cheekily. "I've already made my plan."

Life then reverted to its faceless form. "You are a tricky fairy," it said. "You should be more careful about the gifts you give and the requests you make, lest you yourself end up with Death."

Mavis gave a smile that said nothing in particular to the Fae before fading from the void and returning to the tangible world.

 **Natsu and Mavis**

Natsu was still falling, until he suddenly felt himself slow down. Before long, he was simply floating down when his feet hit another invisible floor, like the one he'd just fallen from. Natsu watched as the darkness surrounding him suddenly faded and blurred into scenery. He was in a forest. It was funny how often that had happened, although he didn't think this looked like the same forest from his first Lucy dream.

Natsu turned in circles, looking around him. What was so special about this place? Why had Mavis sent him here?

A sound from behind him had him turning around. It sounded like... footsteps. They were light and fast. Was it a child running? His question was answered when the line of trees and bushes was broken through and he saw...

Himself!?

It was a child, his assumption had been correct, but it looked just like a younger him. What the heck!?

"Hey, kid!" Natsu called as he ran past. The child didn't stop. "Hey! Why do you look like me!?" Natsu went to grab his shoulder, only for his hand to pass right through. "What the heck!?" Natsu followed after the kid, not knowing what else to do.

For a good while, he watched as the child wandered around, getting distracted by everything from honeybees to deer. He was also picking all sorts of flowers, one of which had come from a purple flowering vine that Natsu recognized from the mountain dream.

And then there was a cry.

Natsu and Kid-Natsu both heard it and whipped around to find out who or what it had come from. Both of their sets of eyes widened when they saw who it was. The kid, because it was a mythical creature that he'd only heard of in stories, and Natsu, because it was the fairy he'd just been talking to.

"Mavis!?" Natsu exclaimed. "What is this place? Why am I here!?" She was her human-size rather than her fairy-size, for some reason.

Mavis ran right through him and shrieked again when she saw the child.

"You- you're a fairy!" Natsu heard his younger self cry at seeing Mavis's wings. "They're broken!" the child continued. Natsu took closer look to see that one of her gossamer wings was, in fact, torn in some spots.

"Yes, yes," Mavis agreed, "But I don't have time to let you gawk!" Natsu suddenly became aware of more voices behind him, shouting about how the fairy went this or that way. "One of my wings is out of commission for now and my magic is acting haywire, so I must be going!" _Her magic must control her size!_ Natsu smiled as he figured it out, remembering what Mavis had told him once about it being easier to be small while in the mortal realm, but shook his head and started paying attention to the scene again. Mavis was about to start running again before the kid grabbed her arm. Mavis yelped again and tried to pull away, but Kid-Natsu shushed her.

"I have a place for you to hide!" Kid-Natsu led her to a patch of bushes nearby before moving a branch to reveal a sort of little-kid hideout. Natsu could tell it wasn't very big, but it would be big enough to hide the almost child-sized woman for a short while. Without another word, the kid pushed Mavis through the entrance to what he probably thought was the coolest secret clubhouse ever. Mavis clambered in, taking care not to damage her wings further before the child let the branch drop again, hiding the fairy and his hideout once again.

It didn't take long for the previous group of voices to show up. Natsu could tell from their appearance now that they were cocky hunters, most of them riding horses, armed with obviously expensive bows and knives, and showing off their previous kills in the form of pelts on their clothing. Natsu didn't know how they'd ever made a single kill with how loud they were.

"Boy!" the seeming leader shouted at the kid, making him jump. "We are on the hunt for a fairy! Did you see her come this way!?"

The child cocked his head. "Fairy? Aren't those only in fairy tales? Seems kinda weird that grown men are looking for them." As the leader and many of his underlings grew beet red at his comment, Natsu tried hard not to laugh. Then he remembered that apparently no one could see or hear him, so he let his laughter go unrestrained. Natsu could see that the child was sifting through the plants at their feet, but what he was doing, Natsu couldn't tell.

"I will not be attacked like this, whelp!" the leader cried at the kid. "Either you tell us where the fairy went or you run back home to your mother and stop disrupting our hunt!"

Kid-Natsu glared at the man. "Even if I had seen a fairy, I doubt I would reveal it to the likes of you!"

"If you know something, boy, you'd better tell us," the leader demanded. The child finally stood up from digging around in the plants, and Natsu could see he had something clutched in his hands. What was he planning?

"I know nothing," the kid said pointedly, and then he threw his item into the face of the leader's horse.

Natsu could see now that it was a spider, a big one with really long legs, which the horse could tell easily enough, as well. It reared up, almost knocking its rider off in the process, before he was darting away from Natsu, the kid, and Mavis's hiding place. Not knowing what else to do, the other hunters rode after the leader and his runaway horse.

The kid grinned at his success and turned around to let Mavis out, only to see her already crawling out if the hideout. She was giggling, and obviously had been holding it in.

"That was great," Mavis told the kid. "What scared the horse off?"

Kid-Natsu grinned wider. "Spider in its face." Natsu couldn't help but be proud of the kid. He didn't know why the kid looked like him and he didn't remember any of this ever happening, but still.

"Well, in my gratitude, you'll forever have the blessing of Mavis the fairy. But... I should give you a gift, too."

"A gift?" Kid-Natsu questioned excitedly. Then, he must've remembered something his parents had told him about doing good without expecting something in return, because he suddenly became meek and said, "I don't-"

"Oh, I insist! And I know you want one. I can see it in your eyes." The kid blushed and Natsu laughed at the reaction. "Now let's see..." Mavis began pacing as she tried to decide on what she could give the boy who'd saved her life. "I could... No, that wouldn't work. How about...? Oh yeah, that one ended badly the last time I used it... Oh, I know! Why didn't I think of it before? It's one of my favorites to give!" Mavis stood in front of the kid, where he was standing and waiting eagerly. She smiled at the sight. "Alright, here's your gift," she said, and the kid put his hands out. Mavis laughed, then placed her hands on the boys forehead, putting a confused look on both Natsu and Kid-Natsu's faces.

"When you make a promise from the very depths of your heart," Mavis told him, "it will most certainly come true."

"Huh?" Both Natsus said.

Mavis smiled in amusement. "It means just what I said. When you make a promise from the very bottom of your heart, then it'll come true," she repeated. "Oh, but you only have one! So be careful about what you promise!" The kid still looked confused, Natsu noticed, but he nodded uncertainly. "Now, I really must be going, but I'll always be looking out for you," she told him before darting away, leaving Natsu still confused about why Mavis was showing him this.

 **August and Lucette**

Lucy could feel that pounding in the back of her head that she'd figured out was Lucette. She was trying to come through, and instead of fighting it, Lucy let her.

Lucette looked around her. This wasn't right and she would have to let Lucy back before too long, but she wanted to find _him._

The redhead and some of the others were still fighting, but _he_ had just finished. Lucette felt her entire being just melt at the sight. It was _him._ He looked a bit different, and so did she, but it didn't matter. She was seeing him again after so long! With their souls still in the mortal realm, neither of them had been able to ascend to the golden plains of Heaven, but now they could see each other again. They'd seen each other as Natsu and Lucy, but that hadn't been the same. Lucy and Natsu may have been their reincarnations and the same people as she and August, but the two didn't possess all the memories of their past lives. They didn't have all the memories of she and August's love for each other.

"August!" she called. Lucette knew that wasn't his name in this life, but it was the name she knew him as.

Natsu felt a pulsing in his head before feeling like his subconscious had been shoved aside. And then August took the reigns.

August turned to the voice he hadn't truly heard in almost 20 long years. The sound was so beautiful, so refreshing, that it brought actual tears to his eyes. They didn't fall, but they were there.

"Luce!" he called back in a desperate, excited voice, and then they were running to each other. August cupped Lucette's face in his palms and Lucette wrapped her arms around his neck. Their lips mashed as if they'd never separated, and with a gasp for air, they separated again, but continued pecking their lips against one anothers.

August leaned his forehead against hers. "Lucette, I've missed you so much. When- When Natsu met Lucy - in that forest, in that dream - I just wanted to reach out and grab you and kiss you and never let you go again.

Lucette laughed. "I think that would've scared Lucy. And Natsu."

"Yeah, probably would've," August agreed with a chuckle. He kissed her again. "I didn't think we'd ever really see each other again, Luce. I've been watching Natsu and Lucy grow close, but I didn't think we'd ever really get to talk as we were in our last lives..."

"I know, August. I've been feeling the same. But you don't have to worry. Natsu is as much you as you are and Lucy is as much me as I am. We're the same people, just with different memories. We have the same soul and the same feelings. We're still here with each other."

"Why're you always talking so profound and beautiful, Luce?" August asked with a smile. Lucy just laughed and kissed him in reply. "I'm sorry I left you, Luce," he apologized sincerely. "I tried hard as fuck to come out of that battle alive, but they got me in the end..."

"Shh... August, it's okay. You fulfilled your promise in the end, didn't you? We found each other again, in that forest we loved so, just like you said."

"What happened to you after I... General Clive told Natsu that you... How are you reincarnated? How did you..." August gulped as a horrifying thought crossed his mind. "Wait, you didn't-"

"No, I didn't take my own life," Lucette quickly reassured him.

August sighed in relief. He wouldn't have wanted her to give up like that over him. He wished she could've lived out her life, but even so, he couldn't say he wasn't happy that they could basically live again. "Well then how..." August suddenly remembered another person from his past life. "What happened to our baby!? Gildarts never said- Is he still..." August flinched a little at the thought that he could have a child still alive and well despite himself being only 18. "He'd be my age by now!" And then he noticed that Lucette was looking away from him and biting her lip. There was something she was finding hard to say. "Lucette, what happened?"

"Our baby..." Lucette sighed. "He died. I... I went into labor prematurely and because of the complications, neither of us made it. That's how I was able to be reincarnated as Lucy."

August and Lucette both took a solemn silence and held each other in a tight hug as a few tears fell down each of their cheeks. August had only known about their baby for a couple months before he'd been taken by Death, and then it had been only a month after that that Natsu had been conceived. Lucette had gone into labor only four months after August's death, two months too early, and they'd both been taken away by Death then. Neither of them had really been able to grieve over the loss.

"We'll have another one, Luce," August whispered in a low, breathy voice against her ear. "We'll wait a bit of course, but we will. Okay?" He felt Lucette nod her head against his shoulder. She leaned back, wiping at her eyes.

"I loved that baby," she told him. "I was devastated that I wouldn't be able to raise him with you, but I loved him. I never really got to mourn him... He was going to be my little August Jr. Whether he'd been a boy or a girl, that's what his name would've been."

August smiled. "Well now we can have a little Natsu Jr. or a Lucy Jr."

Lucette gave her own small smile at that. "Yeah... Yeah, we'll do that." She gave another sniffle, and August kissed her cheek. "Speaking of Natsu and Lucy, I think it's time we let them back in."

August nodded. "Yeah, we probably should." Even though they agreed, neither made any movement to leave. They didn't know what would happen after this. Natsu was still August and Lucy was still Lucette, but would it be different? Finally they both sighed, squeezing each other in their arms once more before deciding to let go. "I love you, Lucette."

"I love you, August."

And then they kissed again, warmly, desperately, and using it to convey every powerful emotion they were feeling and had felt for the years they hadn't been together.

They let their own subconsciousnesses fall back so that Natsu and Lucy could take over again, and when they did, every single one of August and Lucette's memories swarmed into Natsu and Lucy's minds, and for the first time, the two truly remembered their past lives.

They remembered meeting for the first time, when August had mistaken Lucette for the princess. They remembered growing closer to each other in friendship, a friendship that had easily transformed to infatuation. Lucy remembered Lucette secretly admiring August while he trained and Natsu remembered when he'd noticed Lucette doing so. They remembered when the truth had finally spilled - the night of the banquet, their stupid fight, and finally the kiss that had served as an announcement of their feelings for one another. They remembered the teasing of fellow servants and knights of the castle who had long insisted that the two would be together someday. They remembered their first time being fully intimate with one another: the goodbye night, which had ended with August's promise that had made this moment possible. They remembered when Cornelia and Elizabeth had arranged for their marriage through the mail. Lucy remembered finding out that August had impregnated her that one fateful night and Natsu remembered reading the letter Lucette had sent to tell him, waving it around the soldiers' camp, ecstatic about the news and wanting to share it with everyone.

And it wasn't just each other that they remembered. Natsu remembered his childhood. He remembered his single father training him in swordplay since he was tiny. He remembered discovering Mavis in that forest and rescuing her, setting everything else into motion. He remembered moving to the Fioran castle at 13 when his father had died to complete his training and be knighted. He remembered General Gildarts and how fond he'd been of August, almost like a surrogate father figure. He remembered sparring with a younger Macao and Wakaba and everyone else who'd been his fellow trainees and knights.

Lucy remembered being raised by her own single parent - her loving mother who'd also died far too young. She remembered the king finding her begging in the street at the age of seven and bringing her to the castle to be cared for and eventually start a job there. She remembered when Prince Laxus had been born and she remembered when, a few years later, his parents had to be exiled for conspiracy against the kingdom. She even remembered hearing news about each of the births of her apparent sisters, Yukino and Sorano Ceres of Celestia, as well as hearing of the birth of Gray, that is, Prince Jitensha of Koori. She remembered her actual first meeting with Cornelia and Elizabeth, who'd become Lucette's very best friends. She remembered helping Cornelia and Gildarts care for the newborn Cana, and she remembered everything else they'd all done for each other.

Natsu and Lucy's eyes fluttered open, their lips still pressed in a kiss from August and Lucette's goodbye until they realized they were out of air and were forced to separate, Lucy resting her head against Natsu's shoulder.

"Augus- I mean Natsu... How do you feel? This is weird... I'm still me, but I'm also her... I have all of Lucette's memories, I know all the experiences she went through like they were my own..."

"Because they were your own," Natsu reminded her. "It's like Lucette said, I'm still Natsu and you're still Lucy but we're also August and Lucette. We're the same people, right Luce?"

Lucy nodded. "Yeah... Yeah, we are. We have the same hearts and the same minds, and now we have their memories, too." Lucy smiled and pecked his cheek. "And now I have an extra set of memories of your goofs to tease you for," she laughed.

"Mm-hmm... And I have an extra set of memories of how weird you are," and he smooched her lips again, a smile adorning them.

"I'll let that comment slide this time, Augu- Natsu. Argh, that'll take some getting used to. I have more memories of calling you August than Natsu. We knew each other for much longer then. We met when I was fourteen."

"Well, we'll just have to make more memories now, Luce," he told her with a grin.

"You're lucky, you know!" she said with a pout (those puffed-up cheeks that both Natsu and August adored so!), "You can just say 'Luce' and you'll be right, because you've called me 'Luce' in both of my lives!"

"Yeah, I'm very lucky," he said before taking her lips with his again, this time much more sensually and lovingly than his teasing peck before.

* * *

 **Yeah, there was a cute flashback to Lucy's previous life - oh yeah I guess I never got into that in the story yet. Lucy and Natsu are reincarnations. Yeah, ooh big twist, haha. Anyway, August (Natsu's previous life) got sent to war before they got married, so Lucette's (Lucy's previous life), best friends (who'd been Cana's mom and Levy's mom, Cornelia and Elizabeth) arranged for them to get married over a letter, that was a sweet moment I'd have included. And there were parts where Lucy got the chance to talk to Cornelia and Elizabeth, learn a bit more about Lucette and August, though that was before she'd really figured out what was going on with her and Natsu.**

 **Some more little details I'd planned before I stopped working on it:**

 **Gray was the prince of Koori, Ur was a general of Koori's army, and managed to escape with baby Gray and Lyon, who was the son of a knight of no importance. Ur gave Ultear to Hades to watch over her just before the battle broke loose and she got caught up in trying to get Baby Gray out. By the time she made it back to Hades, he'd already whisked her away to Baram and convinced Ultear her mother had abandoned her.**

 **Yukino and Angel were the princesses of Celeste, and technically Lucy, too, though she was born after it'd fallen and didn't have the same father as Yukino and Angel. Yukino and Layla both escaped to Heartfilia Manor, Layla was quickly coerced into marriage by Jude, Yukino was raised as Capricorn's own daughter. Angel snuck her way into Baram's ranks in order to keep a check on them and try to prevent them from finding her sister.**

 **Erza was five during Baram Wars, s** **he had been captured from her home in Fiore and was a child slave for two years before she broke free, t** **he others had all been recaptured; Hades had brainwashed Jellal into thinking that Baram would purge the world of evil and start the world over.** **Jellal helped in the recapture and started being raised as a future general but let Erza go**


End file.
